Electrical book recommendations

[r.galvin]

Hi

I would like to add a new radial circuit to our kitchen for a cooker and I just want to make sure the sighting of the control and connection units are in exact accordance with the updated regs so I thought I'd invest in a book. My gut reaction is that something like The " Which?" Book of Wiring and Lighting would be a little too low level since I at least know the basics of electrical work, whereas the 16th Edition Regs themselves, the On-site Guide and Inspection, etc would all be a bit OTT. Therefore, I was thinking of buying The Electrician's Guide to the 16th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations BS7671.

My question is, is this still very much choc-a-block with tables etc or does it outline in plain simple language that the cooker switch should be Xmm & Ymm from the hob, that when routing the new radial circuit there should be Zmm separation between it and another radial circuit feeding the shower running through the same bit of box work etc.

Basically my plan is to bring our new house up to spec then get a NICEIC registered electrican to come out and perform a PIR.

Thanks

Ross

[Andy Hall]

I think that the IEE Wiring Regulations book (BS7671) itself is a good reference which doesn't set out to be a practical guide. The OSG is a useful short reference guide which does cover most of the salient issues that you would need, but I have found issues that it doesn't cover. The Electrician's Guide is pretty good and most of it is reproduced on TLC's web site in the technical section. It does give good illustrations of issues like cable runs for concealed cables, but again does assume reasonable knowledge.

There are certainly a number of tables as there are in the other books as well. Unfortunately, to be able to be sufficiently generic, this is how the standard is written. The alternative would be to have far fewer approved wiring methods or to have page upon page of combinations which would just get unwieldy. The Whitfield book does at least give some worked examples on how to group cables using the tables and derating multipliers.

To some extent, the complexity that you will need to get into will depend on the techniques you choose to use.

Among the important issues are

- Service and equipotential bonding,

- Getting wiring, wiring accessories and devices correct for the bathroom to account for the zones

- Correct use of circuits and placement of their circuit breakers relative to RCDs

All of this assumes that you know the basics of the correct type of cable for given situations, how to organise ring and radial circuits and obvious stuff like green/yellow sleeving for earths. If you are comfortable with those then I think that Whitfield's book will give you pretty much everything else. It is not a step by step guide, but I am not sure that comprehensive step by step guides exist

.andy

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[BigWallop]

Is this any good to you :

[r.galvin]

Yes is thanks, it did confirm what I intended to do but the discussion on cable size was very interesting. Currently we intend to get a dual fuel model and although I don't know the rating of the oven yet I was still quite surprised that it suggested 4mm^2 was OK for runs under 12m.

My own personal feeling is that this may be OK for a fan assisted oven now but in future years we may go for slot in all electrical model so I intended to install at least 6mm^2 if not 10mm^2 to cover future eventualities.

I must admit I am concerned that the meter tails are still the old 60Amp cables and having read the user guide for the electric shower it says it is a high power model requiring a 45Amp fuse/MCB although who ever installed it used a 30Amp fuse. I've contacted our electricity supplier and asked if they will upgrade the tails, however, I haven't received any reply yet.

Ross

[r.galvin]

Well the gas pipe on 'our side' is bonded to the main earthing terminal right next to it but its hard to tell whether the water main is since all but the stopcock is boxed in. There is no equipotential bonding in the kitchen or in the bathroom so I'm planning to correct all this.

Some of the bathroom has been recently rewired by a 'professional' before we bougth the house but I am very surprised they didn't earth all the plumbing. Doh!

The lowest rated MCBs furthest away from the isolation switch/RCD, correct rating for the cabling, ring mains and radials under RCD protection, but not the lighting since the consumer unit is tucked away under the stairs. I don't want to be flailing about in the dark if it trips.

Indeed, in fact it was interesting to note when I asked a couple of local electricians to pop round and basically tout for any work that needed doing before we bought (as a kind of poor man's electrical survey if you will, but mainly to confirm what I had already ascertained) that one of the indications to them that previous work was probably DIY was the lack of rubber grommets in the mounting box holes.

Thanks I think that pretty much confirms what I thought.

Cheerio

Ross

[Owain]

"r.galvin ntlworld.com>" wrote | Indeed, in fact it was interesting to note when I asked a couple of | local electricians to pop round and basically tout for any work that | needed doing before we bought (as a kind of poor man's electrical | survey if you will, but mainly to confirm what I had already ascer- | tained) that one of the indications to them that previous work was | probably DIY was the lack of rubber grommets in the mounting box holes.

No, I've seen that on "professional" installations too :-)

Owain