Unused cables in back box: what to do with them?

[jacoscar]

I’m adding a socket to a kitchen wall, there are currently two, both on a ring and fed vertically from the ceiling
I have added an extra socket in between (highlighted in the picture) and now the cables drawn as dotted lines are no longer required.
What should I do with them?
Cut them flush at the box knock out? Terminate them with connector blocks?
I was thinking of joining the brown, blue and earth together to make it obvious they are not live
25mm back boxes so not much space

 

[sparkwright]

If it were me, I'd put each wire in a connector block (or all in one as you suggest) and tuck them away.

I'm not a fan of connecting all unused wires to the earth terminal (as some people claim to do) - they shouldn't be there, so why struggle stuffing them into the earth terminal? That's just my opinion.

No sense in cutting them off, they may come in handy - particularly if you discover an upstairs socket isn't working!!

 

[EFLImpudence]

I was thinking of joining the brown, blue and earth together to make it obvious they are not live
25mm back boxes so not much space

Yes, a very good idea.

 

[jacoscar]

No sense in cutting them off, they may come in handy - particularly if you discover an upstairs socket isn't working!!

This was indeed the case; I had forgotten that I had added a socket to the ring in the section I've disconnected.

Here is the original layout

The modified one

And the solution I've found to revive the forgotten socket, which has now become a spur

The problem is that the double socket on the left has now two spurs. I could spur the single socket from the double socket next to it instead, which I think it would be fine in terms of regulations, but the socket is so close to the other one that it will make very little difference

 

[EFLImpudence]

There is not a problem with two spurs from one socket.

[Some will wonder how you managed to get all the wires in the terminals]

 

[jacoscar]

post deleted to add the image below

 

[jacoscar]

[Some will wonder how you managed to get all the wires in the terminals]

I didn't! To be honest, I've stuffed everything in 32A rated wago connectors and run single wires to the socket.

Strictly speaking I have 3 spurs from a single point on the ring (altough one is only 10cm long) rather than 2 spurs from a socket on the ring.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Strictly speaking I have 3 spurs from a single point on the ring (altough one is only 10cm long) rather than 2 spurs from a socket on the ring.

 

[jacoscar]

I added another drawing to explain

 

[EFLImpudence]

Ah, didn't see that one.

 

[sparkwright]

You could have connected the four cables at the socket in a certain way with the wagos, using some short pieces of wires.

So, you could have had one ring wire, one spur wire, and a link wire to the socket spur
and
the other end of the link wire, the remaining ring wire, and the remaining spur wire to the wago

and the same for all two sets of wires.

Got to be easier for the next man to deal with.

***

That said, a decent pro would be able to get 4 cables into a double socket neatly and securely.