Crossed wires?!?!

[a]

Hi all,

We got a new front door which is about a yard further forward than the old one.

On the basis of the story that I heard about the Japanese leaving their Dyson's out in the living room as an art work, I tried the same line with leaving the consumer unit where it is now.

Didn't work. I'm not allowed out till I move it. (Nephew: "What did you do now?)

Challenge/problem?

Moving it to new location, down and over means down stairs cables too long, upstairs too short.

Too long, no probs: Snip, snip and Bob's your aunty.

Upstairs ones, I'll have to cross cables over each other in order to reconnect to consumer unit.

Is this regulation, allowed, frowned on, or what?

Francis

[Andy Hall]

Why do you need to cross the cables over?

Are the cables for upstairs long enough or will you need to join them? If so, then doing so with crimped joints unless you want to have a lot of junction boxes on show would be a good way. Those would need to be additionally insulated if outside the consumer unit.

Otherwise if the cables are long enough except for entering the consumer unit at the wrong end (if that's what you meant), then it may be possible with some consumer units to swap around all the MCBs and incoming main switch to effectively a mirror of what you have now.

I guess it doesn't need to be said that if this is contemplated, the main fuses at the meter should be pulled.

[a]

The whole house is coming up to it's re-wiring time, but it will be next year before that project comes up.

Downstairs circuits are fine. ("Good, we'll be able to have hot turkey for Christmas")

Some of the upstairs cables have enough lenght to reach board. Some too short. I had thought of the mirror image thingy.

I'll try some art work.

I II I II I II I II L______II_____________ II I II I II I II I II I ______________________ I I I CU I ----------------------------------

That's what I mean by cables crossing

I have junction boxes, connector blocks and those chocbox thingys ready if I need to use them.

Apparently I'm going to build a nice little cupboard to house the electrics. :(

If I go crimped (I'm sure there's a joke there?!) what tools do I need? And what is acceptable insulation. Tape?

Also, I learned that if we put in a second electric shower I need some sort of switch so two can't be on at the same time. Any ideas on what they are called.

[Andy Hall]

I see. Assuming that the cables are all visible, I am not aware of any issue provided that a neat job is made and they are properly supported.

If it's all going into a cupboard the lack of neatness of using junction boxes shouldn't be a big issue.

If you use chocolate block connectors, they need to go inside some kind of enclosure and be adequately rated. The other issue with any of these methods is to make sure that the wires, after being extended, end up on the correct MCBs. Having connections for ring final circuits ending up on more than one because they get mixed up is definitely to be avoided. It would be a very good idea to get a multimeter and to at least do continuity tests on ring circuits to make sure that that hasn't happened.

You need to have a proper crimping tool with ratchet mechanism and the correct type of crimps. Tape is not a suitable insulating material. Something like heatshrink sleeve or in this case having all of the crimps in an enclosure would be ways to do it.

butt connectors).

Do you not have any other means of doing a shower? Electric showers aren't that great.

I haven't come across change over switches for the application you describe. A better way would be to get the supply upgraded if you only have an electric shower as an option.

[a]

Snipped to

Thanks for all that, Andy.

I have a multi meter and checked the ring ciruits.

I'm in Ireland but have used TLC before, less expensive even adding shipping than buying here. And sometimes quicker than getting to a store. Go figure!

I have cable clips, and little plastic boxes which the connectors go into (marked on the little plastic box "CHOC BOX"). Rating on them is another thing. Tiny writing, I have to use a magnifying glass to read them!

Having been in America this Summer, the Showers there have us spoilt. I'm not sure what we gonna do.

How do the get the wiring so neat in all those pictures on websites like Hager, ABB, Wylex etc!!!

Francis

[Andy Hall]

You can also tell by size.

If that's the case, you are going to be very disappointed with electric showers - opposite end of the spectrum

[Owain]

Could be a significant problem if the new length of your meter tails is longer than permitted by the local electricity company - in which case yuo will have to install a switch-fuse by the meter and then run new tails.

If in England and Wales, Part P will apply.

Owain

[meow2222]

Youre not thinking laterally here. Buy a handmade knife switch, medium size, put thick black cloth covered tails on it, mount it by the CU, push the tails behind something, and declare youre not going anywhere near the bloody thing.

I think you'd best leave the whole thing well alone.

NT

[a]

The meter tails are no problem. they are same length for new location of CU. It's the upstairs circuits that are problem.

In Ireland, so similar regs. Don't have Rocky Presscott ones (Yet!).

How come the Scots escaped Part P? :)

Francis

[a]

I've never been crimped :)

Andy Hall mentioned insulating the crimps.

Why is it called "INSULATING" tape?! :)

I could wire in some LEDs to cloth tails and say look, "Sparks" :)

Francis

[Owain]

Because building regulations is a devolved matter.

In Scotland, that means devolved to a quango.

Owain

[Andrew Gabriel]

and they didn't escape -- actually they got theirs first (called Part something-else as the letters are out of sync). However, theirs was much more reasonable, i.e. without all the extra red tape and expense.

[a]

To paraphrase Captain Jack Sparrow:

"That would be the Scots"

:)

[Richard Conway]

Surely that's brown tape now?