This is probably a dumb question but I haven't found a satisfactory solution...
I have some surface mounted equipment (e.g. heating controller, security controller) into which I must terminate some low voltage (
Drill a rear-entry hole?
Unfortunately, room in the back plane of the equipment
Your wall mounted equipment should be fitted to a timber panel which is in turn fixed to the surface of the plaster board wall. This is especially so if the equipment houses mains voltage transformers or switch gear, and it acts as an extra layer of insulator material against the paper surface of the plaster board.
It's easier to drill neat holes in the timber panel after cutting a large hole in the plaster board to bring the cables through. The timber panel should also give space to fix clips on the cabling so they are more difficult to pull out of the housings for the equipment. The timber panel allows you drill individual holes for each cable, if you wish, so they are neatly spaced and clipped along the length of the equipment housings.
I'm not sure part B of the building regs would agree with your ideas about using timber and making large holes in the fire resistant plasterboard. Your ideas seem more appropriate for the fifties and early sixties
Cant quite visualise the situation and dont know how many cables but would Trunking rather than conduit look better with the cables entering through the back of the trunking.
Since it's low voltage low current so fire containment isn't an issue, look at through the ranges of enclosures that Maplin etc do for one that looks ok and make your own suitable holes in it.
How about fixing a steel or ally plate to the wall and drilling it for flexible conduit?
Standard cable grommet as used by Teleworst etc. 10mm drill size and will accept up to 8mm through cable. Black, white or clear 50p each.
Who said anything about huge big holes in the plaster board? I only said larger holes in the plaster board to allow for cable grouping to individual holes in the timber panel, which makes the job look very neat and tidy. And, by the way, any electrical equipment that houses mains voltage must be secured to a flat well secured timber platform, in the fifties, sixties right up to the present day. So can you tell me where in the OP that it says anything about the housings "not having" mains voltage present in them?
SNIP
See above - you wrote "after cutting a large hole in the plaster board to bring the cables through"
Yeah sure it does - thats why all the newer (quite some years now) consumer units are mounted direct to plaster/brick/etc, and flush switches and sockets or plastic surface mount boxes have wooden pattresses (not)
So can you tell me where in the OP that it
Conversely can you say where it does since the text IIRC inferred ELV controls?
Yes. A large hole in the plaster board, not a great big gaping huge hole. A little common sense wouldn't go amiss, please.
Your service head end and consumer unit are directly on the plaster, whatever, surface? (not)
To err on the side of caution and safety is my motto, and where someone tells me they are using ELV, then I automatically know that transformers or switch modes will come in to the equation somewhere along the line. To operate these types of appliance you almost always need a mains voltage supply somewhere close at hand.
Hi,
How about an MDPE liner?
cheers, Pete.
So what did you end up doing?
Unlikely he will see your question after 16 years.
I find it amazing that that site does not expire or lock threads after a time. Its surely not that hard to do? Brian
on 06/07/2022, Brian Gaff supposed :
Are you not expecting a level of competance, beyond the capabilities of such a poor quality site owner?
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