Can a single piece of earth sleeving be used to sleeve two CPCs from two T&E cables prior to connecting to a socket faceplate or must I use two pieces of sleeving, one for each CPC before connecting to the socket faceplate?
What do wiring regs say about this?
Stephen
Your comment about shoving a pair of T&E's in the same grommet hole is interesting.
Is this based on regulations that its one single hole per grommet or is there a practical reason why you don't shove a pair of T&Es in via the same grommet hole?
If I was to "shove two T&E's via their own individual grommet holes, I would have to widen the plastic capping near the back box to accommodate the air gap between the cables as they approach the back box. After all, the capping I use can accommodate a pair of 2.5mm2 T&Es comfortably.
Stephen.
earth would have a a double meaning in that case. the other being the soil you hammer a conductive rod into that you attach the CPC to if you have a TT install.
Also earth/soil is not a very good conductor as pure copper which is what most CPC is made of.....
No electrician here - but I thought it was expressly each conductor sleeved separately. Having seen a lot of places where two (or more) have been squeezed into onto sleeve, I'd never want to do that.
I always sleeve them separately, though the professionally wired sockets here had the CPCs twisted together and sleeved, which I'm not a fan of.
And is against the Regs. Keep them separate.
Its better to sleeve each separately - makes testing and maintenance at a later date simpler. If you get the 2mm sleeve rather than the more common 3mm it also looks neater and is easier to handle
other than requiring sleeving [543.03], I am not aware of an explicit statement giving more detail in BS7671 itself.
A lot of pro sparks break the regs, then.
That's not a breaking news story is it;-)?
I don't think I've ever seen them sleeved separately.
You would see it on my work. I have a pet hate and that is shoving two 2.5 T&Es through the same grommet hole in a back box.
If the cables use different entry holes then they MUST have seperate sleeving.
Earth sleeving is so cheap that it's a bit of a non question - the OP is doing some DIY electrical work and it will take him longer to read the replies to this thread than to cut the earth sleeving needed and do a "proper" job and just sleeve the cpcs seperately.
It makes the dressing of the cables on second fix much easier and neater and it allows "some" flat plate socket faceplates to be used without the use of a deeper backbox
99% of the sockets I install do not use capping. Even when I use capping I still use two seperate grommet holes for the T&E cables. There is no other reason than I prefer to do it that way and I believe it is a better job when done that way.514.3, and 514.3.2. Identification of conductors. You cannot identify which cable goes where at its termination if they are twisted together.
Although if sleeved with green/yellow then they are adequately identified as a CPC even if a shared sleeve is used... so not convinced that requirement precludes a shared sleeve.
(note, I am not defending the practice - as already stated, individual sleeving is better)
What is with this renaming the earth cable I have been perfectly happy with it being an earth for 60 odd years.
Its not actually been renamed (in recent times), its an alternative technical name with a slightly more nuanced meaning... so when discussing specific requirements of BS7671 its sometimes easier to use their language rather than the common terms.
In article , A.Lee writes
Citation please.
If the wires enter through one knockout hole, I run both earth wires in one sleeve, but don't twist them. It looks neater too.
On Thursday 07 March 2013 11:37 Mike Tomlinson wrote in uk.d-i-y:
You are supposed to take the CPCs on a ring to seperate earth terminals if the accessory provides 2 (or more).
That would seem to preclude putting them in the same sleeve, surely?
If the bare ends are twisted, sleeved and conected to the same terminal then it's obvious where they both go at this end.
If they are sleeved and terminated separately then it's no more obvious where they go at the far end.
Your statement only makes (some) sense if you are referring to sleeving and terminating separately and *then* twisting the cables so you can no longer tell one from the other.
MBQ
In article , Tim Watts writes
[I'm referring to domestic installations, this is uk.d-i-y after all]Yes, I've fitted several sockets which have two earth terminals. Where two T&Es enter the back box through the same hole I sleeve both cpc wires in one sleeve and connect both to one terminal.
My understanding was that the second terminal is used in installations where a high-integrity earth is required (e.g. for switching power supplies with a high earth leakage). Some wiring work in an IT suite in our office was recently done like this, with a second, separate cpc used to provide the high integrity earth.
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