Moving a ceiling light

Crimped joints would be better - but choccy blocks or a round junction box are both ok as long as the joint remains 'accessible'. Make sure you maintain earth continuity.

Depending on the path which the existing cable takes, it may be possible to re-route it without needing to make it longer.

Thanks Rodger, I need to shift a load of boxes in the loft area to get access to the cabling so just trying to see what my options are before I start.

Current favourite for a lot of uses, the 21st century choccy bloc, Wago connectors

You cannot just use "strip connector" on its own. The connector needs to be in a box (and not wrapped in insulation tape).

ss wrote in news:FXUSq.848$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe30.ams:

Be aware before you start that you may have have 3 (or more) cables going into the ceiling rose. In which case a junction box and a cable going to the new position would be better.

--- Posted via news://freenews.netfront.net/ - Complaints to snipped-for-privacy@netfront.net

If going this route (which is probably the least hassle if there are several cables that would otherwise need extending), you will probably need a 4 terminal junction box. Wire like this:

I assume that rule didn't apply in 1995 when henry boot were building my parents house, the sparky who wired up the double oven used not one, but 2 choccie blocks and about a roll and a half of tape on each,

seem's the cable that ran from the cooker switch plate to where the oven would go was a bit too short (ran in the void between the plaster board and wall so not exactly hard to replace) so he just choccie blocked an extra length on, he must have mis measured, or guessed the length wrong when he cut it from the spool, as he needed to extend it another 2 foot, so another choccie block, then finally the connection to the oven,

the joints were wrapped like rugby balls in tape, and the last connector was found to have melted quite a bit when the whole lot was ripped out the other day when a new oven was fitted.

Although I am not sure what you mean by "redoing the upstairs circuit" as any form of junction box is not desirable on a rewire.

Did he work for that firm, Bodgit and run?

I'd have thought something as heavy as a cooker needed to be accessible as screws come loose as we all know! Brian

This thread is interesting as a friend got an electrician in to move a ceiling light and he refused the job as he said he would need to rewire the light completely due to the way the earthling was arranged. Sounds dubious to me. A test of the earthing in the ceiling rose shows it to be fine.

He mentioned it was regulations.. hmm.... Brian

It does meet the regs.

The junction box method is now seldom used.

Ouch.

You have not done anything non compliant.

You do have to remember to feed the cables

Did you learn that the hard way:-)?

The Line products look fine to me.

Probably just too small a job to make enough profit?

Is there any other way? ;-)

Is it possible to demount Helacon connectors, do you know? I was under the impression (from the instructions that came with them, I think) that rotating them left and right and pulling steadily would free them but I only succeeded in snapping the copper and ended up having to snip the whole connector off and bin it.

I got caught out by that. My son asked me to replace a ceiling rose and pendant bulb holder with a fancy light fitting. There must have been 20 wires in that rose!!!

Mike

Everything the owner says on the video is true - traditional JBs are a total pita and can be unreliable.

The ones used in light fittings - you twist one way only, as though unscrewing. The cut into the copper conductor is diagonal, such that you can unscrew the conductor.

Some actually have a screwdriver release.

However, many of these connectors are designed for one use only. Don't know about Helacon specifically.

He didn't like the way "the earthling was arranged"? Tell him to f*ck off back to his own planet.

It may have been that the circuit did not have an earth at all. Prior to

While this falls into the same category as most other work not to current standards, in that you don't need to rectify it just because the standards have changed, it does cause a major problem if you need to modify or extend the circuit, since you can't do it in a compliant way.

There are things you can do to make the circuit safer, (i.e. only use insulated switches and lighting accessories, and fit a RCBO etc), but the only viable options if you need to make changes to it are are to rewire the whole circuit, or don't touch it. Sometimes you can get round this by powering a new extension from another circuit instead. However if that is not the case, and the customer won't pay for a rewire, then all you can really do is decline the work.

Did he want =A31800 cash to do it, ready at the door?

Heh, heh :-)

Earths might have been twisted outside the box etc.

If ever decorating, turn the power off re paste, dig out the old lighting cable and thread it through oval conduit & backbox grommet, then plaster it in, then size the plaster, then wallpaper. Nothing worse than =A330-80/roll of wallpaper (and I recently found one that was =A338 per running metre...) only to need to dig out a cable. Ok, you can use pullcord switches to avoid it - but it costs very little extra to do it.