What's this stuff for? Is there ever a use for it?
I'm sure that an appropriate use doesn't include the supply to my outside light (earth cut short and unconnected, naturally)... I've no idea where it's borrowing its neutral from, but I now suspect that the truly ancient single core rubber still visible outside isn't quite as disconnected as I'd assumed.
Joy. More to fix ASAP.
It is still quite often used on lightings circuits. Some councils still use it on their houses when rewiring. It's main advantage is that there is only
1 live cable, one earth and two neutrals at a light litting.That probably is not the correct use for it:-)
More fun
The OP asked about "single core + earth". I thought that meant it had a phase/live and a CPC/earth. But I can't then see how using that ends up with 1 live cable, 1 earth and 2 neutrals. Any chance of an idiot's guide please?
Second idiot with his hand up over here...
Only current supplier of this stuff I can find is over here:
The permanent lives and switched lives of the circuit use the single core and earth cable (6241Y if you want to google it).
This run starts from the MCB and loops between the lightswitches to provide a permant live and earth to the lightswitchs. Another length is then used from the lightswitch to the light fitting to provide the switched live and earth up at the lightfitting.
The neutral cable is a double sheathed cable (6181Y with a blue inner sheath) that runs from the CU neutral busbar and from lightfitting to lightfitting (there will only be one neutral at the end of the circuit).
And can I bugger find a picture of this on the net.
It make it easier to put light fittings up as there are less cables to mess with at the fitting
Do a search for 6241Y, you might find someone carrying a 50m reel of it. Check local electrical factors, even CPC & Farnell might have a "to be discontinued" roll of it left somewhere.
What do you want it for?
Mind that being quoted on the wiki?
NT
Not at all.
And if I find the diagram of it I'll let you know (or ask DavyOz nicely to draw one)
And it looks like TMH took the photo:-)
Thanks, I guessed it must have been something like that.
My question would be though, doesn't this lead to either some spaghetti paths from switch to switch (all vertical drops?), or else a lot of situations where two or more of these cables are running side by side. I can't see it as being both efficient for length and giving good routing.
I can see that being useful for wall mounted fittings where it may be inconvenient to squeeze live & switched-live inside the fitting.
Particularly if it was several runs of wall-mounted fittings, with all the runs controlled from a single switch-bank.
But it does mean different paths for part of the run of the phase and neutral, so possibly a source electromagnetic interference.
It would all depend on the layout of the house and which floorboards you have access to. It is not one of the installation methods I would use unless the customer asks me to (and then it costs them more as it is usually more labour intensive).
Yes, I believe it does cause some electromagnetic interference. It is not an installation method I often use.
I use other methods when rewiring a house and wall lights and outside lights are fitted.
Thanks. The fact I couldn't see it makes me think I'd better stick to wearing the pointy hat with D on it.
No need: you have painted a good one.
I can see that now - and I'd thought of it where I've fitted 2 lights off one switch, ending up with 4 x 1.5mm T&E at some fittings.
I'm very interested in what those methods are.
I've recently wired all the lighting in the upstairs of my chapel conversion. All the lighting is wall mounted bulkheads or 5A sockets.
For the most part, I looped in all the fittings and sockets, and used
3+E droppers to the switches (to provide currently-unused neutrals in the switch backboxes).The bulkheads, I've done a very neat mod to fit a 4-way connector block and allow room for multiple cables. The 5A sockets, I used deep boxes to accommodate multiple cables, but had to use choc-block (wrapped in amalgamating tape) for the live loop-through.
Although it's perfectly safe/durable/serviceable, a solution that didn't require a choc-block or similar junction would be better.
That is one method that I use. The other is to loop all the permanent live and neutrals at the switch. There is nothing special other than the space needed
Have you tried the Wago connectors?
You beat me to it on that one, it creates a huge loop aerial which will radiate any crap that that is flowing on the loop. This would be particularly noticeable on a dimmed circuit.
The ideal is to keep flow and return in the same cable and then most of the noise will cancel out.
An issue I was acutely aware of in a previous job, in a lab with quite a few electron microscopes.
With the countless wiring mods in a very large building, over the years, not all feed and return paths were adjacent - possibly not even in the same conduit or even duct.
EM's were immensely sensitive to electromagnetic fields generated by mains wiring.
The solution we developed was active field cancellation - small sense coils adjacent to the most sensitive part of the microscope, driving (via some cunning circuitry) large (room-sized) field-cancellation coils. And it actually worked rather well - as good as an order of magnitude reduction in noise in the microscope image.
Thanks Adam :)
NT
No, but I mean to next time I get over to the TLC counter.
They have a confusingly large range of stuff. What might you suggest as a good starter bundle?
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