Blank plate a wiring accessory?

[Andy Hall]

I need to install an outlet for some lighting in the middle of a wall about 1500mm up from the floor.

For logistical reasons it isn't possible to run the cable to it directly horizontally or vertically down from the ceiling

There is a small shelf at about 750mm from the floor with a small skirt panel at the front.

I can run the cable horizontally immediately below shelf height and concealed in the wall.

If a wiring accessory is used, it is permissible to run the cable horizontally to it and then vertically to the lighting outlet. This could be fitted below the shelf out of sight and cables run horizontally and vertically to it.

However.... I have no real need to install a socket, switch etc. - there would be a plasterboard box.

So the question is...... does a blanking plate count as a wiring accessory?

I suppose I could put a switch on there but it would be unnecessary functionally..

[Owain]

Yes, if the cable runs through the backing box behind it. But it would have to be "visible" as someone might not remove the shelf before trying to hang pictures, wouldn't it?

Incidentally, a 2" BESA box with a flat cover flushed into the wall also counts as an accessory and is much less visible once emulsioned over. Or an 'architrave' box is half the width of a standard faceplate.

Owain

[Andy Wade]

I think so.

Regulation 522-06-06 refers to a "point, accessory or switchgear." Fortunately all three items appear in the definitions. A point is defined as "a termination of the fixed wiring intended for the connection of current-using equipment" so that doesn't apply, nor does switchgear (obviously). However an accessory is "a device, other than current-using equipment, associated with such equipment or with the wiring of an installation." That would seem to cover it: a knock-out box with a cable passing through it and a blanking plate over is certainly a "a device [...] associated with [...] the wiring of an installation. QED.

[Andy Hall]

Good point. Actually the space under the shelf can be seen by looking up underneath it.

Mmm.... I'd forgotten about architrave boxes...

[Andy Hall]

I suppose I could break the cable and joint it with crimps to make the point.

It seemed to me that the intent of the regulation is that there should be something clearly identified as an electrical accessory or outlet at the vertical/horizontal transition.

[Lobster]

But couldn't - in theory - some muppet come along later and wallpaper over the blanking plate - OK, lumpy wallpapering but we've all seen worse! - thereby concealing it, and with it the route of the cable...?

David

[ARWadsworth]

There is nothing to stop some muppet papering over an unused immersion heater switch as I found out recently. The new owners of a house had asked me why the immersion switch in the airing cupboard did not work and the lumpy wall paper in the kitchen was the clue. Underneath was another switch that was in the off position

Adam

[Andy Hall]

I suppose so. Normally a wiring accesory or blanking plate is a few mm proud of the wall so shouldn't be papered over.

I want to play by the rules and address the foibles of idiots. If there are f*cking idiots at some point in the future who do stupid things and blow themselves off of the mortal coil, I would treat that as a service to humanity.

[Andy Hall]

How on earth can one paper over a switch and it not be obvious?

Do people really do this?

Answer, obviously yes. I'm amazed though.

[ARWadsworth]

You would be sick if you saw some of the things I have seen.

I have also seen, in random order and very short list with the worst not included

Scum landlords who rent a flat out above their shop and are stealing electricity from the tenant but try to hide the dodgy socket when you do a PIR on the shop.

Sockets and switches painted with gloss paint

Landlords offering you cash to pass very unsafe installations (rubber wiring, cookers wired directly into double sockets, no earthing, bypassed meters on HMOs where they have to pay the bills etc)

1.5 T&E from an unused immersion switch to supply an electric shower

Twin .075 flex used to supply brass wall lights straight off a double socket on a 32 amp MCB

Electric meters bypassed with speaker cable

Laminate flooring laid over carpet underlay

Wallpaper over artex

Illegal things that the immigration are now aware of (the phone call is anonymous)

Try a week working in some of this countries poorest households and you would not be amazed anymore.

Adam

[Ben Blaukopf]

or, the electrician doing the wiring on a new build could put a socket in the wrong place, realise, and replace the socket with a terminal block and a thin sheet of plastic covering, which then gets wallpapered over, with a radiator hung on top, and therefore not even a hint of any wires anywhere...

I found it when drilling a mounting hole for the new rad. Fortunately masonry bit are blunt as anything, so I simply put the drill against the wallpaper, noticed that it pushed the wallpaper in before I started drilling, and investigated. Stuck an accessory plate on top of it and mounted rad elsewhere...

Ben