Don't believe everything you read

Jeff Layman · 2016-01-03T09:26:41+00:00

When we moved in 3 years ago, in the lounge there was a surface-mounted plastic pattress on the wall backing on to the kitchen. It was right in the corner with the lounge external wall, and about a metre off the floor. On it was a paper label stating "circuit is disconnected". Within a couple of hours it got lost behind the TV, and I forgot all about it. Until this weekend, when I had to get behind the TV, and saw it again. I wondered what was behind what appeared to be just a label over a blanking plate, so unscrewed the cover. I expected to find only bare wires, or maybe covered with insulating tape, which would be par for this place. What I found was the mains cable going into a standard brown plastic block of the sort you'd find in any socket, switch, fused spur, etc, But I could see nothing on the front. It seemed completely flat; there was certainly no switch. And the label wasn't big enough to have covered a 13A socket. I pressed the label a bit harder, and detected some indentations. It then became clear what it was - an old round 3-pin socket for lighting. At this stage I decided to put a test screwdriver on the screw holding the red wire. Of course, it was live! So much for it being disconnected... Then I noticed that there were two cables attached to the block. One appeared to go to the outside wall, and then the penny dropped. In the lounge there are three picture lights, all on different walls. One light was on the outside wall, about a couple of metres from this 3-pin lighting socket. On the outside of the house behind the light there was some trunking, which went from the light to what I thought was the kitchen. I could just see a cable re-entering there. I couldn't see it on the inside, and had assumed it was just below the work surface and hidden behind something. Now I know it goes to the 3-pin socket. It's probably a good time to get rid of all this junk as we never use the picture lights (all of them are different styles...

Jan 03, 2016 21 Replies

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Mark Evans 10 years ago

Some dimmer packs, such as the Strand Mini II, used 5A sockets.

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Andrew Gabriel 10 years ago

There was a 30A one too, used for the dimmer pack supply and other high load appliances (such as industrial kitchens). It died out as the combo BS4343 connectors took over.

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