I've browsed the group for a while, and am looking for advice on the use (or misuse) of connector strips in domestic lighting. We recently had a flat rewired and various types of LV lighting put in throughout. In most cases the electrician used junction boxes to wire the prewrired transformers onto the lighting circuits, with those being fed from about 25 dimmers in several DIN boxes located mostly in the loft. Generally the guys would make a hole in the ceiling, wire the JB, and then feed the JB, transformer and finally the fitting into the ceiling. However, some fittings are small and a JB wouldn't go through the hole, and access wasn't necessarily possible from above. In this case they used 3 poles from a suitably rated connector strip, wrapped the strip in tape for insulation, and finally fed everything through the hole as before. Although fine for insulation, does this contravene the regs, and if so, how should one wire this to comply given the access restrictions from above/below?
Also, with regards to access of junction boxes. In this property, almost all JB's are accessible via the loft, but a few are beneath a floor above. Of those, some can be popped down if the light fitting is removed, but if this isn't possible, is it mandatory that permanent access be provided somehow from above? This would require a hatch somewhere, but wouldn't be great in some types of flooring, and could be impossible if the floor above was tiled, had underfloor heating etc. Longer cable runs to JB's that are located at an accessible point should be possible in that case (but maybe not always), but with even more complicated and obscure wiring as a result. Using a connector strip would then seem the better solution as bringing a light down from the ceiling would be possible, albeit not ideal, and would give more logical and straightforward wiring.
Advice, ideas and rules and regs welcome.