Recent content by crj10

Part P means I'd have to pay an electrician to do that. At which point it would probably make more sense to install additional sockets rather than move the current ones. But I think one of them is already a spur. And knowing my luck a blanking plate doesn't create a horizontal safe zone, so it...

I have lots of books, so I have lots of bookcases. As a result, I have two bookcases that block access to mains sockets. It's occurred to me that there's about 10mm clearance behind each bookcase, so: can standard 13A plugs and sockets be got which are that low a profile? I know I can get a...

Yes, I've considered that. But: * They'd then have the wrong plug on when going on holiday or whatever. * While it would get rid of the proliferation of adapters, it wouldn't make things much more compact. I've also considered sticking 2A three-pin plugs on them but, bizarrely, the...

OK... so whether or not it's OK to lock the cupboard containing the distribution boards is provind controversial, but what about my specific worry that the shower isolator switch is in there, too?

...nor able to accept a BS 4573 shaver plug.

So how many shavers and electric toothbrush chargers does your household have? Mine currently has three. This means I have a four-way extension block with three shaver adapters plugged into it, which strikes me as a little silly! (Before anyone asks, no: it's not in the bathroom.) While...

I'm sure they could have plenty of fun hacking open cupboards at random until they discovered which ones that contained the distribution boards...

As part of recent renovations, my employer's landlord has fitted out a room as combined shower and disabled lavatory. The shower is fitted with an isolator switch, but it's in an electrical supply cupboard outside the shower room and a few metres away. Now the fire safety people have come and...

Sorry. I was just wondering, if sharing a neutral single-conductor in conduit is regarded as a bad idea, what one should do instead if using conduit. And I was considering several options. I'll try to list them more clearly. One option would be two lives in different colours and two neutrals...

Mmm. That does make sense, and is roughly what I expected people to say, but it's interesting (to me, at least) to explore the edge cases. So suppose one did want to wire in conduit and, for the sake of conventionality, send neutral along with the live and then back. How is that achieved? Two...

Hmm. This is all looking more controversial than I expected! I think my view (with no formal qualifications as an electrician but a certain amount of experience surrounding the design of appliances) is that some parts of the load cannot be protected by a separate fuse, so have to be covered...

Mainly, noticing that the neutral travelled from the double-pole isolator, half-way along the garage, through an unswitched FCU, past a light switch and then back the other direction in another piece of twin-and-earth. Effectively, it's a continuous, unswitched, unfused conductor that's gone six...

The motivation for a fuse to the switched live might be not trusting the internal wiring of light fittings to be safe without. Or wanting to use a 10A architrave switch, or whatever. As I say, for my garage rewiring I didn't do it. I'm mainly asking out of idle curiosity, though perhaps it...

I was asking firstly about the case where only a switch separated the two lives (which people seem to be saying is completely fine). Secondly, I was asking about the case where the switched live is also fused to a lower current (though taken from the unswitched live, so that if the unswitched...

Mmm. But what if someone wanted to, I dunno, run a hundred 36W fluorescent tubes off a single 20A circuit?