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- 26 Nov 2007
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People,
I am undertaking a kitchen ring installation, the electrician has surveyed what I am installing and is coming next week to test and certify.
I have a total of six appliances fed from the ring, but did not want alot of switchable spurs above the worksurface to isolate each of them. I felt it would look cluttered. I therefore opted for MK's grid range which allow 2 x double pole 20A switches to fit on one single gang plate. I then have a whole bank of unswitched spur plates which are positioned below the worksurface to feed the switches. The unswitched spur plates are reasonably accessible because a they will be behind a wide drawer unit, which allows the drawer to be removed.
The electrician (whilst he had not seen this method before) was broadly in agreement however, his only comment was that in the event of a fault, a future homeowner may pull an appliance fuse from the bank of unswitched spur plates and then for some reason open a single gang isolator switch plate and wrongly assume that both switches are dead (remember that the two switches will be on seperate spurs). He advised that a note / label should be placed in each single gang isolator plate backbox (the one that contains 2 x DP switches) effectively stating that two circuits feed the switches on the plate and should be considered live.
I propose to use the following text on the label "Warning - The switches attached to this plate are fed by two indivdual spurs. Until both spurs are isolated, all terminals in this backbox should be considered live".
I have worded the note to provide clarity to the untrained. Please advise on whether or not you consider it is suitible for the application. Perhaps it could be customised for each switchplate to detail what spurs feed it, althought then it would have to be captive to the plate so that it could not be mixed up with other plates if a future homowner were to renew switchfronts
Kind Regards
Paul
I am undertaking a kitchen ring installation, the electrician has surveyed what I am installing and is coming next week to test and certify.
I have a total of six appliances fed from the ring, but did not want alot of switchable spurs above the worksurface to isolate each of them. I felt it would look cluttered. I therefore opted for MK's grid range which allow 2 x double pole 20A switches to fit on one single gang plate. I then have a whole bank of unswitched spur plates which are positioned below the worksurface to feed the switches. The unswitched spur plates are reasonably accessible because a they will be behind a wide drawer unit, which allows the drawer to be removed.
The electrician (whilst he had not seen this method before) was broadly in agreement however, his only comment was that in the event of a fault, a future homeowner may pull an appliance fuse from the bank of unswitched spur plates and then for some reason open a single gang isolator switch plate and wrongly assume that both switches are dead (remember that the two switches will be on seperate spurs). He advised that a note / label should be placed in each single gang isolator plate backbox (the one that contains 2 x DP switches) effectively stating that two circuits feed the switches on the plate and should be considered live.
I propose to use the following text on the label "Warning - The switches attached to this plate are fed by two indivdual spurs. Until both spurs are isolated, all terminals in this backbox should be considered live".
I have worded the note to provide clarity to the untrained. Please advise on whether or not you consider it is suitible for the application. Perhaps it could be customised for each switchplate to detail what spurs feed it, althought then it would have to be captive to the plate so that it could not be mixed up with other plates if a future homowner were to renew switchfronts
Kind Regards
Paul