Cable routing between cooker isolator and outlet

[foolishalec]

Hi. My cooker isolator is above and to one side of the cooker. The outlet is behind the cooker and below the cooker top. I presume the wiring runs in the plaster, either across and down or down and across - hopefilly not diagonally.

Is this permissible? There is no way to tell the actual route.

Thanks,

Foolishalec

 

[plugwash]

accross and down or down and accross are acceptable diagonal is not.

having said that i stronly reccomend not drilling too close to the diagonal between them as there is a good chance its not in the compliant route.

you could possiblly trace the cable with a voltstick or similar but such non contact testers are unreliable at the best of times.

 

[didthathurt]

I'd be very careful about that diagonal. Regs do allow you to run the cable that way provided the extra protection requirements (ie steel earthed capping) is used. Most installers will have done it that way to save cable run but, luckily, steel capping generally gives a good return on a detector. If in doubt, make sure the powers olff before committing yourself to the drill.

 

[The Jeep]

I'm not sure if steel capping is OK here (on the diagonal) - should it not be steel conduit? However, as you guys know, if it's more than 50mm deep in the wall then no extra protection is required, though running diagonally is always poor practice.

 

[plugwash]

steel capping provides negligable mechanical protection and is difficult to earth for earthing based protection (and anyway the rules for earthing based protection say surrounds which technically capping doesn't do)

conduit is designed to be securely earthed at the terminations (its sometimes even used to carry the earth) and brings more mechanical protection (though a big hammer drill can sometimes still go through.

 

[foolishalec]

Thanks for your thoughts. I've finally found the route by:
- looking inside the boxes to see where the cable leaves and enters
- deciding 'down and across' was the most likely route and
- carefully digging-out the plaster where the cable-bend should be (and lo, there was a cable-bend).