Got up and did it this weekend (thankfully the weather made it a much more bearable task).
One question tho - why oh why oh why are the circut joint boxes such a pain in the arse to work with? What's wrong with a "busbar" type join box? Surely these things must exist? ISTR seeing this type of connection used in electro-mechanical systems I've worked on in the past - what's so wrong about them?
Anyway - took the opportunity of slinging the inhibitor and boiler noise silencer in the header tank while up there. Also checked the roof for damage (given that it was put on in 1920) given the high winds and rain we've had over the summer etc. All seems ship shape and ready for winter.
Whoo - now back to the bathroom - and time for painting.
BTW - anyone know where to find an 11w normal (not small) edison screw energy saving cadle lamp? Nowt in Screwfix/QVS/Homebase/B&Q.
Yeah that's the sort of thing. Indeed it is space that's a problem. Plus - in order to get all the wires in the connector and have them safely and reliably connected - they need to be paired up - meaning that you have to either have
a) very long runs round the box or b) two wires per entry
Just gets too damn fiddly and stuff. Nothing that you can't do with long nose pliers etc - but it would have taken about 1/3 the time if I had say a 4 terminals per "circuit" busbar type arrangement - could have screwed it all into and bob's youd uncle etc. Much more securely wired of course. Not that the effort that I've made isn't securely done - in fact I'm paranoid etc - but it would have been easier for me to feel happy iyswim.
God put us on this earth to suffer; it affords Him a little harmless pleasure to watch us lose the stupid little headless screw/slotted-thread thing while we wire up those nasty little JBs overhead. He often arranges for his minor henchman Sod or his stand-in Murphy to arrange for said screw to bounce/roll somewhere non-obvious, so that we raid the next JB for a spare; and if torturing of mortals is particularly on the agenda for the week, He'll arrange for the screw to be standing sharp-unfinished-edge-up next time we're walking past with bare feet.
As to "why not busbar style" - fractionally higher material cost, I guess. Ceiling roses are "busbar" style, but don't allow multiple cable entries in as pleasing a style as conventional JBs. A 10-pack of clip-on-lid, stepped-size-rubber-pseudo-gland square Sarel boxes can be yours at RS for a mere 8.63quid+VAT with no terminal blocks (251-5633), in which you can wire with nice commoning blocks such as the ones made by Zeta (with a rising clamp rather than the cruder direct-screw-down style), sold by RS as e.g. partnum 315-4790, 10quid for box of 10 3-way commoners, or 315-4829, 12.50 for a 10box of 5-ways. They allege to be Man Enough for up to 60A of sustained load, so won't be the weak point in your design; you might want to use those for E, N, and maybe perm-L, while using a way or two of the physically smaller choc-block for switched-L and maybe perm-L, which you'll have fewer cores of. Pricier than the "I Can't Believe It's A Junction Box" sort of thing you can get at 60p a time, of course, but may be worth the improvement to your sanity. There are DIN-rail mounting variants too, which can be handy in wiring radial circuits with multiple departure points, or Cunning Electrickle Projects...
Just had a look. Are the Zeta blocks supposed to be clipped into the Sarel boxes or just left floating - can't tell from the picture but it looks like the latter.
I like the Zeta blocks - one clamp per wire is *good* - I've used similar DIN rail blocks before and everything just feels so much more "positive".
Just I find the idea of floating wires/blocks to be less than perfect (Hate chocco blocks for same reason)?
The one good thing about the round boxes with grub screws was clarity of layout - 4 posts well seperated and fixed solid. I do agree though, those grub screws are a bugger to get in, esp. with 3 x 2.5 mm2 wires going in, and I do find myself doubting one screw gripping on 3 loose wires (sometimes one doesn't quite get held properly, which is why I twist then together before clamping down).
Sorry to disappoint - just left floating, though with the stifness of single-core cables, even 1mmsq will keep them where you neatly fold the wires to make them stay; they're fully insulated so nothing Bad will happen even if they do bump into each other under the influence of a passing squirrel doing the tango. If you want 'em secured, you're into buying the DIN-rail-mounting variant, which can (if I recall correctly - it's raining and I can't be arrassed to check the ones out in the garage ;-) that there's a mounting hole in the DIN-rail clip which you could use in the absence of a rail...
Ahh, the "should I twist or not" argument - haven't had that one for a few months now ;-) NICEIC dogma is not to twist: one reason being it makes inspection harder (if you're doing e.g. measurements of ring conductor resistance at multiple positions), and repeated twisting and untwisting will lead to the conductors breaking. For the regularly-inspected world this argument carries some weight: for the domestic fit-n-forget world, the security of twisting outweighs, in my addled mind, the anti-twisting argument...
Doesn't sound too bad - and those blocks do look nice. Think I'll buy me a pack to play with. The blocks are rated from 1-6mm2 which pretty much covers everything domestic.
That thought did cross my mind. I agree though - domestic is hardly touched once in so twisting is definately better IMO.
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