Electrical Connection Boxes

[Andy]

The upstairs lights in our house are wired such that the cables from the light fittings and the switches all go back to a central point. This in itself is OK but at this central point all of the neutrals are joined in a single (32A) choc block connector and all of the lives to the switches are the same. The switched live to the lights are individualy connected again with choc blocks. These are all enclosed in a plastic box.

I want to change the choc block/plastic box connectors for something more suitable but can't find anything when looking through TLC, CPC etc. I guess there must be some form of box available that has a live and neutral bus (like a consumer unit but without any circuit breakers) so that the individual wires can each have their own connection, and multiple individual connectors. Any pointers would be greatfully received.

Andy

[Tony Bryer]

When I redid our church CH wiring box this summer I used

picture seems to have disappeared but these are little units that clip on mini-DIN rail which have 6 x 1/4" male spade connectors all connected together. You'd probably have to put linking wires between several adjacent ones to get enough connection points.

Doing it this way certainly made sorting out a load of wires much easier for me: diagram of what was what, then take it wire in turn, crimp on a female spade and connect.

[Stefek Zaba]

If you've room for a DIN-rail box, and want things to look (and be ;-) neat, then an arrangement with Zeta commoning blocks for your N, E, and permement-L-feeds, while using "ordinary" DINrail terminals for your individual switch-returns, would give you a neat arrangement.

If you're not sure what I'm whiffling on about, pop over to rswww.com and incant "388-2811" into the Search box for an instance of DIN-rail-mounting commoning blocks, and "220-4131" for ornery DIN-rail terminals.

HTH - Stefek

[Andrew Gabriel]

I use DIN rail terminals sometimes. One word of advice -- always buy at least one size up from what you think you might need. Incidently, you can buy DIN rail boxes, terminal kits (end clamps, earthing terminal, small assortment of terminals), and sets of 5 or 10 terminals in specific sizes from many electrical wholesalers, often hanging on display at the the counter, and this seems to be cheaper than most other places. ISTR CPC was cheap for the terminals too, but not looked for a while.