Mains cable behind wall

Hi all,

I want to add a couple of mains sockets to my ring, both next to an existing one, so that I have three double sockets in total. The mains cable currently comes from the ceiling and down the wall between the plasterboard and brick. It is covered in a metal cover, obviously to avoid anyone drilling into it etc.

My question is - from a regs perspective - as I have to extend the ring to add these sockets, do I have to cover the cables in a similar way or can I just run them between the brick and plasterboard with no metal cover? (I know not to run them diagonally.)

Antony

Reply to
antgel
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No need to cover (there wasn't even a need to cover the original run, but it does offer useful protection while the place is being built). Your new cable runs will be horizontal between visible accessories (the sockets), which is where wall-drillers should Officially Allow For Them To Be.

Do try to keep all your new sockets as a ring - extending two doubles from one existing socket by daisy-chaining is a no-no, and taking two spurs (to left and right) off one socket is permissible but hard in practive to get all 4 conductors into the socket tunnels and into the backbox (therefore hard to meet the 'good workmanship' requirement of t'Regs). If you've only enough slack to reach a little further, take one cable to the middle, rather than the end, position, leaving the shorter one at the current edge - then run new lengths existing-edge to new-edge and new-edge to middle, if you see what I mean.

HTH - Stefek

Reply to
Stefek Zaba

It certainly does. However, I have a little problem with slack. I'd like both new sockets to be to the right of the original. This means that of the two cables entering the existing socket, the cable on the right will have to enter a socket quite a distance from where it is now. I can't run it diagonally. There's no room between the plasterboard and brick for a junction box. Is the best way of doing this to sink a junction box into the wall above the existing socket and run a new cable from there to the right-most one? And does it matter that this cable will be just _above_ all three sockets, not horizontally between them? Surely nobody would drill _there_. :-P

Reply to
antgel

No it doesn't.

You wire one existing cable to the existing socket, from the existing socket wire to new socket 1, then to new socket 2, then *back* to the other existing cable, using chocolate block to connect back to the remaining original cable.

That means that all three sockets are part of the ring, not spurs.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

To avoid all wiring problems stack the sockets vertically (sockets are still aligned above one another in conventional horizontal alignment) , one existing ring cable comes into top socket, one goes into bottom socket, new cable links top socket to middle socket and middle socket to bottom socket. No slack problems, no wire physical protection problems, ring remains complete, no spurs, diagonal wiring or junction boxes, simple wiring with two cores per socket terminal, lots of space for cables to emerge from plug tops too (surprisingly). Might look strange but I've doubled up sockets like this for years - never done a triple though.

Reply to
Harry Ford

I think what you are saying is the same as what I suggested. I never suggested wiring them as spurs, but did suggest using a sunken junction box, whereas you suggested chocolate block. Is there any reason to use chocolate block over a junction box apart from the hassle of chiselling brick to sink it in?

Is a chocolate block in a dry-lined wall regs-compliant? Seems crazt if so as the metal terminals are "on show".

Antony

Antony

Reply to
antgel

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