Loop-in at switch
- Thread starter Jupiter01
- Start date
We use the white ones 5A, though we use 1.0mm² for normal lighting circuits. We used to use the translucent ones with the brass bits in them, but near the end we were throwing away more than we were using as the threads would be stripped or the brass cracked before we started. I don't know what brand we use now, but they have been faultless for the past 5 years.
Anything suitable. Lots of modern things but they usually are quite large.
Terminal blocks are fine - the smallest you can get the wires into.
Terminal blocks are fine - the smallest you can get the wires into.
Helpful as ever.
He means Hager switches have an extra terminal for 'parking' the neutrals.
He means Hager switches have an extra terminal for 'parking' the neutrals.
Yep we use Hager too, one of the many reasons to love them. It makes for a much tidier job
They do. I have to say that, in the context of a DIY forum, those switches worry me a little. With 'conventional switches' one can be confident that no matter what instructions are given (and perhaps misunderstood or disregarded) as regards what to do with the connections to the switch, the worst that can happen is incorrect (or no) functionality - and the same is true of those oft-maligned DIYers who take a 'trial and error' approach to the permutations of 'which wire goes in which terminal'. However, when one of the wires going into a terminal is a neutral, there is clearly plenty of scope for some 'bangs'.
It might have been 'safer' if they had included a neutral terminal which was clearly distinct (ideally physically separate) from the switch terminals in the main switch body, rather than having it looking like any of the other switch terminals.
Kind Regards, John
I don't really see what difference it would make. A ceiling rose is the same. If they're gonna mess it up, they're gonna mess it up. It's well labelled and isolated. Unless they put the N into SL (that could happen if there was no N loop) nothing is gonna happen.
I also suspect DIYers are less likely to use Hager, as I am yet to see them stocked anywhere but a wholesaler
You can't please everyone all the time.
A switch may be fairly simple but I don't think, in general, manufacturers design their products in such a way that those who haven't a clue can fiddle with them safely.
Take the back off a TV.
A switch may be fairly simple but I don't think, in general, manufacturers design their products in such a way that those who haven't a clue can fiddle with them safely.
Take the back off a TV.
It's obviously true that they can mess anything up (be it a switch, rose, plug or whatever), but I do think that (when there is a neutral loop) the Hager switches make it a bit easier for them to do so (or "... so to do" if EFLI is watching!)! Apart from anything else, what we see here seems to suggest that the practice of 'trying all permutations' of conductors into identical-appearing terminals is more common with light switches than with anything else.
I'm not sure I fully understand that bit in brackets. In the absence of N looping, there wouldn't normally be an N present, would there?
That's true, but other manufacturers might start following suit - since N looping seems to be becoming more fashionable, and there is no doubt that such switches make for a neater job in the hands of those who know what they are doing.
Kind Regards John
Probably true but, in this case, I think that the design we are talking about also makes it more likely that some of those who "do have a clue" will, as a result of 'human error', create a bang (hands up every electrician who has never put the wrong conductor in the wrong terminal!!).
I'm not sure that is necessarily a very good example/analogy. 25 or so years ago, I would have agreed with you - but I think that if you took the back off a more recent TV, you'd probably be very hard-pressed to find anything hazardous to touch. They might mess the TV up by fiddling, but I doubt that it would be 'unsafe'.
Kind Regards, John
Yes, up with such things I shall not put.
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