Terminating an electrical cable.

Hi All,

We've removed an electric shower from the bathroom, and along with that the pull-cord switch that used to control it. I'm going to completely remove the cable that went from switch to shower, but accessing the other end of the live cable seems impossible, so I need to terminate it. As we have a consumer unit with breaker switches (which might be turned on and left by someone in the future) I've put in place the following solution: turn off the breaker (and label it); terminate the cable in a 20A junction box screwed in place to one of the joists in the loft; label the junction box with the breaker to which it connects (using permanent marker on the junction box).

Is that sufficient? Is it overkill? Are there any better solutions?

Cheers - Adam Cheney

Reply to
Adam-the-Kiwi
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Remove the other end of the cable from the MCB at the consumer unit. Preferably remove the MCB from the consumer unit. No need to remove the cable itself. Just coil up the consumer unit end somewhere in case you wish to reuse it in the future.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

In message , Adam-the-Kiwi writes

why not just disconnect the cable at the consumer unit? you could label the cable for future reference if you want to I guess.

Reply to
chris French

Definitely. Murphy's Law guarantees that if you remove the entire length of cable you'll need to reinstall it later. Been there, done that, ...

Chris

Reply to
chris_doran

On a similar note

I'm planning to remove my electric shower next year and replace with a thermostatic one fed by the combi boiler. This will then give me a 30 Amp supply to my attic. Is there any reason i cant put a further consumer unit on the end of it and install a seperate ring main and lighting circuit in the attic?

Thanks guys

Chris

Reply to
Christopher Lewis

Technically, I can't see a problem with this. But the bloke from the council might be worried if you've changed a storage space into a semi-habitable space with lights and sockets. Escape if the area goes on fire must be a high consideration...

Whilst not wishing to open a can of worms, I can see that standards are a way of learning from previous mistakes. And some of the previous mistakes have been deadly.

HTH

Mungo

Reply to
mungoh

Maybe he wants it for his (boy's) trainset? In the old days of course, we plugged these in with a BC plug into the nearest lamp fitting on the rafters, adding a 2 way BC adaptor in order to wedge a bulb in too :)

Seriously, there are lots of reasons you might want power in the loft, eg: masthead amp, linux server, wifi base station...

Cheers

Tim

Reply to
Tim S

| Seriously, there are lots of reasons you might want power in the loft, = eg: | masthead amp, linux server, wifi base station...

Also, Lights so that you can see all the junk which accumulates once one has installed flooring.

--=20 Dave Fawthrop Sick of Premium SMS scams, SMS marketing, Direct marketing phone calls, Silent phone calls?=20 Register with

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they work :-)

Reply to
Dave Fawthrop

Yep Tim, appreciate the sound reasons for needing power in the loft.

I'm being a hyopcrite because I have lights and power in my loft, but I still feel it is proper in such a newsgroup as this to at least broach some of the issues that others may not have experience of.

Having heard of an acquaintance expand his abode into the loft by a rudimentary lining of the beams and some chipboard flooring, I was aghast when he continued the story that he moved his son's bed up there, with present access being a ladder propped up through the loft hatch!

So a bit of power won't go amiss, it's just the worry about fire and the (presumed) single escape route. Good luck to Chris.

Regards

Mungo

Reply to
mungoh

This is in effect running a sub main from one consumer unit to a cascaded one. No problem with it in theory. Make sure you run it from a non RCD'ed side of the main CU (if available) or from a time delayed RCD at the head end if you must have an RCD at the head (typical with a TT install). You will also need to watch the fusing/MCB ratings carefully to ensure you trip the local ones and not the head end ones. (typically you could use a HRC cartridge fuse at the head end or use an MCB but keep downstream ones at least a couple of ratings steps below the head end). This is so you can achieve discrimination between circuits in the event of a fault - tripping out the lights in a loft as a result of a power circuit fault could be even less desirable than elsewhere if the whole place is not boarded out etc.

Note also that if you have a PME earthing arrangement then you will need to ensure you extend the equipotential zone into the attic space.

Reply to
John Rumm

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