Problem - I have a lounge that has 2 double sockets and 2 single sockets
- unfortunately one of the singles is right next to a double. I have no idea why, it looks ugly and I have no need for 3 sockets in that part of the room. I've taken a look at the cables going to it, and predictably there's a cable going under the floor that feeds it, rather than one from the nearby double socket. The question is - how can I trace where this cable has come from? It goes under the floor with the cables from the double socket, but from there I have no idea. If it's going to prove difficult, what's the elegant way of leaving the cable in place and removing the socket? I don't want to just leave a live cable with the ends taped up. I have some space where the socket is
- would it be acceptable to get a junction box, connect it to that and leave that behind the skirting/floor? Is there any kind of cable terminator you can get?
How many cables are connected to this socket? If it's part of a ring main, there will be two - in which case you can remove the socket and crimp the wires together inside the box - to provide continuity - and insulate them. You can then cover them with a piece of hardboard, and plaster over them.
If there's only one cable, it must be on a spur - and is a bit more tricky. I assume that you've got a suspended wooden floor? How much space is under the floor? Do you ever need to crawl around down there? Would a powerpoint down there be useful?
If so, you could simply retrieve the cable to the under-floor space, and install the socket (in a surface mount box) on the side or bottom of a joist.
In that case, provided you can get a floorboard up easily, you could pull the wire down to joist level, and terminate it in a round junction box screwed to the side of a joist.
"mike. buckley" wrote | Problem - I have a lounge that has 2 double sockets and 2 single | sockets - unfortunately one of the singles is right next to a | double. I have no idea why, it looks ugly and I have no need | for 3 sockets in that part of the room. | I've taken a look at the cables going to it, and predictably | there's a cable going under the floor that feeds it, rather | than one from the nearby double socket. The question is - how | can I trace where this cable has come from? It goes under the | floor with the cables from the double socket, but from there | I have no idea.
Could it be a radial circuit for a (storage) heater, terminated on its own fuseway in the (or a second) consumer unit?
| If it's going to prove difficult, what's the elegant way of | leaving the cable in place and removing the socket? I don't want | to just leave a live cable with the ends taped up. I have some | space where the socket is - would it be acceptable to get a | junction box, connect it to that and leave that behind the | skirting/floor?
Under the floor, yes, provided it remains "accessible".
If it's a spur then it must be joined onto the ring main somewhere. This should be at a fused spur box but more than likely it will be at another socket which will have three cables going into it. You should be able to separate them out and find out which one goes to the single socket (the other two will be live), then you can isolate that one if you can't pull it out altogether.
Not necessarily. The Original Poster should start by working out which "final circuit", i.e. fuse/MCB in the fusebox/consumer-unit, the single socket is on: it could be on a different circuit, maybe even (Lord Help Us) the lighting circuit, bodged in as a handy place to put a table-lamp switched by a wallswitch (which may itself have been replaced by one with fewer gangs (physical switches) subsequently). Ass-U-ming existing wiring is rational can have consequences ranging from the merely embarassing to the life-shortening...
Again, this assumes "modern" (16th Edn) wiring practices have been followed, and that the relevant final circuit is a ring, not a radial. Previous editions sanctioned two separated singles off a single (unfused) spur, so the single cable feeding the single could come from another single socket. It could come off a double, too - a previous owner may have converted an existing single into a double, and been "sure" it was on the ring 'cos of the two cables at that point.
Nor is there any requirement (in current or earlier Regs) that spurs be fused - unfused ones feeding a single point (whether single or double) continue to be Regs-compliant.
So to get back to the original enquiry - first find which circuit the single's on; then open up "likely" places where the single cable feeding your single might be coming from. It shouldn't need saying that you'll keep the power for that final circuit *off* while you open up the possible sources, right? If it's close by and the cable's loose, you might be lucky enough to see the other end moving wheh you or a glamarous assistant wiggle the end at the single socket about; otherwise you're into lifting floorboards/chipboard, shining torches, doing Things With Small Mirrors, and similar arcane rituals to track down the cable route. As you investigate, try to believe neither the best nor the worst about the installation - it might be standard, it might be a bit non-standard/no-longer-as-we'd-do-it-now, or it just might be the Bodge Job From Hell. The fact that the single doesn't just feed from the "obvious" place (the adjacent double) makes a "totally standard" explanation a little less likely, mind...
There are, of course, cable-locating gadgets which inject a signal into the live wire, and arrange for it to return a Physically Different Way (down an earth path, if memory serves - at current tiny enough not to trip an RCD nor present a danger), with a handheld receiver to track the signal; but they cost significant money (200 squids?) and need some skill in interpretation/usage, especially on a ring rather'n a radial circuit. Useful in commercial premises (so if you work for a larger company you *might* just be able to sweet-talk the in-house sparks into lending you the gear ;-), but well out of scope for normal d-i-y purchasing. And no, plugging in that old bench-grinder/vac/drill with the sparky worn-out brushes and tracking the interference with a detuned medium-wave radio is *not* a responsible substitute - likely to be of limited effectiveness as well as being UnMutual (Nr 6)...
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