I just drilled a hole through the wall so it came out under the indoor socket (which I did from the outside in, to avoid blowing the brick-face off) and after a lot of accurate measurements from reference points, it came through the wall in exactly the desired place (A lifetime first for me) and power the outdoor socket from a 13A plug inserted into the indoor socket. The ultimate in isolationability.
That's how one of my outside sockets in 'powered'. I do have a 'whole house' RCD.
Quite right, sorry, loose terminology. Disconnection, perhaps rather than isolation, but it makes the circuit *relatively* safe to work on because, in your example, it would require a second fault to make the outside socket live.
It can be a double edged sword - the small hole will sometimes be used by small bugs to tramp damp soil and other debris into the socket...
Someone could sneakily plug in one those £10 test devices that Wickes sell while you are somewhere between Guildford and Scotland and trip your RCD, turning off the fridge and freezer :-(
Someone could simply walk up to my outdoor meter cabinet, open the door, and switch off the 100A double pole isolation switch.
OP here. Thanks for all the comments. I wondered about switching the spur - I'll know if I ever do another one. The spur and the sockets were supposed to be in line and I don't know why they aren't. I know the label's crooked but coukdn't be bothered to change it.
It's locked
somebody once did that to our gas supply
Accept it as constructive criticism and a learning curve.
You have not said what the internal walls were made from. That makes a big difference in how easy it is to get the FCU to line up with the socket.
A small tilt on the back box so the top of the box is further out than the bottom can cause this when the top of both back boxes are in line but that means the socket screws are not when you second fix.
You are not a professional electrician and if that is the first time you have done this then it's not bad at all. In fact not bad for 4th or 5th goes at it.
I'll give you another tip that no one else picked up on.
The socket screws slots should be lined up. I prefer horizontal others prefer vertical - it's the old how to hang a toilet roll argument.
Could you please not use words such "external socket" when labelling up?
Use "outside socket" then at least my apprentice knows the meaning of the words.
I'll finish on a question.
WHF is plugged in on the RHS of the 2g socket and why does it have what looks like deliberate a hole in the middle of the moulded plug?
I have many such plugs moulded onto leads which I think mostly came with IT kit over the years. Here's one in black:
Should I worry even more?
This is one of the reasons why *all* of the outside sockets are on their own 32A RCBO at my house.
I have 4 ring mains inside the house all on 32 RCBOs so I then have the discrimination where if a fault develops outside, the inside is not affected at all. :-)
Your gas supply has a 100A DP switch ?
No fun in that.
Slackening of the nut after the gas meter to give them a bigger gas bill is more fun.
I've never seen an outside-cabinet electricity meter that has an isolation switch, as opposed to the "company fuse". The first isolation switch, short of getting the electricity company to pull that fuse, is normally the one on the consumer unit or RCD which is inside the house.
Thinking of resilience to sabotage, I'm always surprised that where a house has an underground phone line, it comes up *outside* the house, right by the front door, to a junction box that anyone could sabotage before the cable goes inside. Apparently it was a favourite trick of burglars (in the days before most people also had a mobile) to prevent a householder being able to make a 999 "there's a burglar in my house" call.
I have seen hundreds of isolation switches inside outside meter cabinets.
Fitted after the fuse and meter of course.
Never try and add a telephone extension at a house where the average income is about 50K a week.
I just did a straw poll of 10 plugs hanging on my "spare cable hooks", and 8 out of 10 had at least one similar hole, and a few had a couple of them. (and those with holes included reputable brands like Volex)
I don't recall ever giving the holes a second thought but a quick search shows others have been more observant and enquiring. One poster to the IET forum reported asking a manufacturer and being told it is:
"the small hole left by a securing pin used to hold components in place whilst the moulding process occurs".
I assume you dropped the line and set off the Redcare???
Footballer's house?
Owain
This is why I like this newsgroup.
I sometimes feel inadequate, but I like this newsgroup.
I have my extension leads coiled up with a string loop hanging from hooks. Different hooks for 1-gang, 2-gang, 4-gang, with the shortest at the front and the longest at the back.
I also did not have many friends as a child.
Owain
and on top of that, the Outside ring main runs around the inside of the with double pole switches in place of sockets. Then a cable runs from each swithc to a single outside socket.
So I have 7 DP switches on the ring main, then either a 2.5mm2 cable to a single outdoor socket or a 4.0mm2 to a double outdoor socket.
So if any one socket develops a fault and trips the RCBO, I can isolate that oen socket and put the RCBO back on.
I can then fix the fault(s) in slower time.
I have a similar arrangement for the 16 outdoor lights and 8 PIR sensors.
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