Hi,
I just moved into a house, where the previous owner has installed an electric shower (which obviously replaced the one that was there originally when the house was built).
The shower is rated at 10.5kW (Triton Ivory 3) but the MCB on the consumer unit is only rated at 32A, so I also suspect that the T&E cable is probably also too small (I have read that for showers >8kW you should use 10mm sq. T&E with a 45A MCB).
Q. Is there an easy way of identifying the gauge (cross sectional area) of T&E cable - i.e. should this type of cable have any external markings?
I just resorted to examining the cable's live/neutral wires, to see that each one contains 7 conductor strands each of 1.06mm diameter (measured with a vernier caliper). I calculate that this equates to a cross section of just over 6mm sq. - i.e. I appear to have 6mm sq. T&E.
I have seen some photos of 10mm sq. T&E cable, and the earth conductor seems to be multi-stranded. Perhaps that is a clue?...
Cheers,
Tomba
I just moved into a house, where the previous owner has installed an electric shower (which obviously replaced the one that was there originally when the house was built).
The shower is rated at 10.5kW (Triton Ivory 3) but the MCB on the consumer unit is only rated at 32A, so I also suspect that the T&E cable is probably also too small (I have read that for showers >8kW you should use 10mm sq. T&E with a 45A MCB).
Q. Is there an easy way of identifying the gauge (cross sectional area) of T&E cable - i.e. should this type of cable have any external markings?
I just resorted to examining the cable's live/neutral wires, to see that each one contains 7 conductor strands each of 1.06mm diameter (measured with a vernier caliper). I calculate that this equates to a cross section of just over 6mm sq. - i.e. I appear to have 6mm sq. T&E.
I have seen some photos of 10mm sq. T&E cable, and the earth conductor seems to be multi-stranded. Perhaps that is a clue?...
Cheers,
Tomba