Junction box for old lead sheathed cable

[grimly4]

No, but I might do that in my own place, to facilitate cleaning.

[Adam Funk]

Good idea; maybe you can inspire others to follow that example!

[Adam Funk]

Installing the cooker socket is a one-time cost, as opposed to hiring an electrician every time you replace a cooker. I concede that the price of the cooker in the USA includes the cost of supplying it with a special 4-pin plug, but that must be a lot less than the additional cost of hiring the electrician.

[Adam Funk]

Saving money on the first installation by not putting in a lot of sockets just passes additional costs on to the tenants & subsequent owners, at least since they have to buy extension strips, if they don't actually hire someone to install more sockets. The motivation that I've always heard for the American minimum socket requirements is to reduce the need to use extension leads & thereby reduce the fire risk from them. (I'm not sure how much of a fire risk they are, TBH.)

I'm not aware that it causes any problems over there.

[see other post about the cost of cooker installation]

How are screw terminals (especially choc-block ones) any more gas-tight than wire nuts? (I may be missing something, but they don't look that way to me.)

The US National Electric Code is written by the National Fire Protection Association, which (AIUI) is governed by engineers, fire deparments, & fire insurance companies, so I'd expect them to know if wire nuts *as they are used there* were really a fire hazard. Note that I'm not suggesting we should use them here (I prefer screw terminals), just that using them over there probably doesn't deserve the ridicule.

[Adam Funk]

Let's say including a suitable flex & 32 A plug adds £15 to the price of an electric cooker. (I'm just guessing, but that sounds reasonable.) Given the choice of two otherwise identical models, any normal consumer would pay £15 more to plug it in himself as soon as it's delivered rather than £50 more to have an electrician come & connect it later.

But no-one here is being offered that choice!

[Mike Clarke]

Except that currently the "normal consumer" doesn't have a suitable socket to plug it into so will still need to call in an electrician to either fit a socket or remove the plug and wire it into the existing connection point.

--=20 Mike Clarke

[Mike Clarke]

But even if they start doing that now there's going to be millions of homes which don't have the sockets for many years to come.

[NT]

Yes, you save hundreds on the installation and spend a tenner later on

4 way leads.

The pressure the screw exerts on the cable is far higher, high enough to exclude gases. As a result, the metal interfece doesnt corrode, so connection R remains low. Screw-on wirenuts arent gastight, so the metal interface oxidises/corrodes, causing fires.

The difference is political. The rate of domestic electrical fires in the US is far higher than here, the risk is well known. The political will is to regulate only as far as providing a bare minimum just about passable for the poorest people trying to afford a working installation.

In UK the political will is more geared toward a system best suited to the average person, with the expectation that there will be very little in the way of individual cases specced to higher safety levels. Contrast that with the US where many people refuse to accept the cheap sockets with push-in wire connections.

NT

[Owain]

Except that AIUI IEC 60309 aren't allowed domestically, being non- shuttered.

Owain

[NT]

Oh. Are the 30A BS546 fittings still available anywhere? I expect not.

NT

[grimly4]

Like that would stop me.

[Adam Funk]

Or a lot more to add a decent number of sockets to the existing wiring; it would be cheaper and safer to do it right in the first installation.

Right.

I see what you mean.

Apart from the proliferation of extension leads, I think you're probably right.

Interesting point. I always used the screw connections because they looked much more reliable. But I don't recall ever seeing sockets with *only* push-fit connections on the back, though; I'm not saying those don't exist, but the ones I've seen had either only screws or both screws and push-in holes. (What's allowed can vary geographically; the National Electric Code is a "model" that most local authorities adopt by reference, sometimes with their own modifications.)

[Rick]

when I did my first wiring ... wiring nuts were allowed in UK, not sure when they were 'banned' ... they are a pretty tatty way of wiring.

[Owain]

I think they're still made by Lewden Palazolli mostly for railway use.

Owain