I have demonstrated that electricians ask the wrong questions..
just google for the TLC table and de-rate if you are stupid enough to put it in insulation that then hides the cable when its unnecessary to do so in a loft.
I wouldn't fit an electric one in the first place as I only have an 80A incomer and have mains pressure hot water from solar thermal. Something the electrician probably wouldn't tell you.
He should have used a junction box - a fire resistant box with the connections inside. For example:
For changing from T&E to flex, the normal item would be a fused connection unit with a flex outlet, with or without a switch and / or a neon indicator:
However, there is nothing, in principle, wrong with chocolate block connectors, provided they are enclosed in a fire-resistant enclosure. I have used them inside surface mounted metal boxes in an industrial environment, with the cable coming through conduit and the flex leaving via a cable clamp / gland.
Colin Bignell
It is fairly simple. If you want to meet every word of the regs, that does make it a bit more complex.
Trouble with so many build regs nowadays is they've forgotten their original purpose, and are too often now about trivial or entirely unnecessary matters.
NT
There is nothing difficult about domestic electrical installations.
Routing cables through insulation is trivial. Loft insulation crowd a) just cover shower cables in it (a few morons) or b ) lift cables so as to lay insulation underneath (more recent).
An issue is availability of suitable instruction.
- DIY store leaflets, Readers Digest, education at school.
- A more USABLE On Site Guide re Worked Example final circuits & tables re cable sizing re length, insulation etc.
- A more USABLE Maintenance Manual, so people learn photographically WHAT i s right and also WHY with a simple comment, the benefits in deaths of smoke alarms, appliance recalls, fake power supplies, PORTABLE APPLIANCE SAFETY. It could be sponsored by the DIY stores - a remake of the Readers Digest b ook, cut down so it EDUCATES. They can decide to do themselves or outsource to a tradesman.
The whole nonsense could have been avoided because #1 Part P never covered portable appliances which cause the vast majority of deaths and #2 cowboy i nstallers of kitchens still kill MP daughters and #3 cowboy trade & cowboy DIY will still ignore any legislation - like most of the population ignores the speed limit which is policed profusely with on the spot fines, points & so on!
The real problem is government lobbyists writing white papers, poodle civil servants, with parliament writing no detail and just rubber stamping with lobbyists writing nonsense "white paper 30,000 hospital admissions for elec trical injury a year".
The reality is the number of houses with 2.5mm T&E up the garden is probabl y lower now than it was 20yrs ago. Some may have just replaced like with li ke, however a fair number are probably tut-tut electrician replaced by SWA or DIY replaced likewise. Likewise more houses have at least some RCD prote ction than there used to be, in view of few people living 50yrs in the same house with same electrics / kitchen / bathroom. THAT is why the lobbyists see a goldmine but of limited duration - after all the IEE committee do NOT have to disclose their commercial interests, and the IET (indeed move from IEE to IET!) was a disgrace at the rubber stamping of Part P without any s cientific basis. Like Aus the number of deaths went up, NZ on removing "Par t Protectionism" found deaths fell.
The REAL problem currently is not Part P. It is junk electrical products re safety approvals, component quality, etc from laptop power bricks to domestic appliance fires and recalls. It is cowboy tradesmen with 0.5 Meg shunt resistors across the insulation t ester output terminals (and another meter in the van which passes their wir ing), so money gets spent fixing that which does not need fixing leaving in sufficient for the MUCH NEEDED smoke alarms. Too many people STILL die in f ires.
Correct socialism is bottom up, corporate socialism is top down to the bott om line, the country is arse up in policy - from electrical regs to FIT to Energy Policy. Lets see an Activity Based Costing of the next load of nonse nse and bureacratic bollocks, necessary for ANY legislation and evaluation of ALL appropriate legislation. Downsize the weight on consumer & business or sink.
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