grouping cables in plaster

I'd want to do this right even if I didn't have to have it inspected under Part P! I've slowly been replacing the wiring in my flat to a proper ring final circuit (previously, there was a spur to a single socket in each room, dating back to 1960). Because of the concrete floors I have been chasing the walls and plastering over the cables. However the final leg back to the consumer unit will involve both cables running parallel along with a 3core+earth cable I have to put in for a new light switch so I can rehang a bedroom door.

Because of limited space, these wires are going to be pretty close, and I'm trying to understand page 41 of the On-site Guide (section 7.2.1 Grouping of cables). With twin+earth, for example, what is "one cable diameter"? Is it the diameter of the conductive part, the diameter of a single insulated core, or the width of the total sheathed cable? Alternatively, what are single-layer circuits? Does that simply mean the cables don't overlap (in which case, I am covered by the second part of 7.2.1(i) because I have less that 5 circuits for this section) or is it something more complicated than that?

Many thanks Stephen

Reply to
Stephen Gower
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The light switch cable can be ignored if it's only carrying the current drawn by one or two lamps, i.e. probably well under 1 amp. For the purpose of grouping factors you only have two cables.

The last of those.

Yes, it means a single layer of cables flat against the wall, either just touching or spaced by one cable width, as appropriate. 'Single layer' clearly has much better heat dissipation than 'bunched' or 'bundled' and the Cg factors are correspondingly higher. See also Table

6C in your OSG (pp118-119).

Yes, you've nothing to worry about here (unless perhaps the protective device is still a re-wireable fuse). A more contentious question would be this: because they say "circuits" rather then "cables" can you consider the cables for the two ends of a ring as one? A literal reading would imply that you can, because the ring is one final circuit. However I don't think that that's the intention, as you need to achieve at least 20 A grouped rating for the cable of a ring at all points along its length.

HTH

Reply to
Andy Wade

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