Tee-ing off a radial circuit

He's gone a bit loopy lately, I think he is worried about criticism.

There's another video where he replaces a consumer unit in a garage. There is a massive amount of usable cable on the existing circuit cables clipped down the wall, yet proceeds to pull them up into the loft, and drop them down about 12 inches along the wall, faff about cutting some wooden trim out to accommodate trunking, whilst at the same time leaving some unsightly existing cabling which he somehow left looking even worse.

I think he needs a holiday.

Anyone seen LAsparkTV?

Bloody hell................

SUNRAY said:

Doesn't know how to use 5 holes.

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My mate at work uses 5 holes like that, despite being told

sparkwright said:

Anyone seen LAsparkTV?

Bloody hell................

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yes I have, I don’t know if I should laugh or cry when I see some of the stuff he’s done

What do you mean 5 holes?

I’ve not watched LA for a while

AndyPRK said:

What do you mean 5 holes?

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Pump pliers,
Slip joint pliers,
German tool.
To name just 3 other names.

This sort of thing but ingore the quality and price, it just happened to be the first pic. https://www.screwfix.com/p/slip-joi...TJi63pu43uUbySQ0ocxoC9IgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Called 5 holes because the originals had... yes you've guessed right 5 holes for the pivot.

sparkwright said:

He's gone a bit loopy lately, I think he is worried about criticism.

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I think you are right, But I conceed there is something marginally nicer about having everything in a linear formation, and having only one furthest point, etc. but its only marginally, obviously in this example its far outweighed by how it looks a mess, the extra cable used, the extra time in cleating/glanding, the extra volt drop, unnessary set of joints, etc. But sometimes its not so clear cut, I recall an office fed on its own radial circuit, 1.5m drop in the corner then just under 3 meters along the back of a desk with about 4 twin sockets in in, a socket was needed in a corner of the room away from the bench, I brought the cable upto the ceiling, down the dado drop but instead of just threading the cable 1m to the first socket and branching it there, I rodded straight through to the end and put it into the end socket, yes two extra metres of cable, but it was no more effort, and I've avoided three cables into the back of a dado backbox and I've got a circuit thats only got one end of line to worry about. Now some would regard that as being s pointless as whats in the video, but in my case, I thought the pros and cons were at about 50/50 and I felt like doing it that way.

Everything we do is always a set of compromises, the trick is being able to pick a solution that requires a minimal amount of them, without worrying too much that people will judge you on over element of it, if you have done things for sound reasons then you shouldnt be concerned about what others will think

Edit: Think this leads onto another point, I think we have all met guys on larger sites who never work alone, they always want to just be installing as per instructions rather than deciding how something is done, its not just our trade, its the same across most of them. I suspect its because thats how they have always worked, never had to decide how something is to be done, and I'm guessing if by a certain point they haven't, then they never will.

Adam_151 said:

I recall an office fed on its own radial circuit, 1.5m drop in the corner then just under 3 meters along the back of a desk with about 4 twin sockets in in, a socket was needed in a corner of the room away from the bench, I brought the cable upto the ceiling, down the dado drop but instead of just threading the cable 1m to the first socket and branching it there, I rodded straight through to the end and put it into the end socket, yes two extra metres of cable, but it was no more effort, and I've avoided three cables into the back of a dado backbox and I've got a circuit thats only got one end of line to worry about. Now some would regard that as being s pointless as whats in the video, but in my case, I thought the pros and cons were at about 50/50 and I felt like doing it that way.

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I probably would have done the same thing, in fact I can think of an example where there was a dado with a vertical run of the same floor to ceiling. The 4mm² feed rose from the floor space and worked its way along the wall 5metres or so, they wanted socket on the other wall and I connected into the end and came back along the dado to drop to the floor void, it saved getting 3x4mm² into a socket

if you have done things for sound reasons then you shouldnt be concerned about what others will think

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Correct but sometimes I've been back on my own work and wondered why I did it that way.

Edit: Think this leads onto another point, I think we have all met guys on larger sites who never work alone, they always want to just be installing as per instructions rather than deciding how something is done, its not just our trade, its the same across most of them. I suspect its because thats how they have always worked, never had to decide how something is to be done, and I'm guessing if by a certain point they haven't, then they never will.

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Tell me about it, like a flock of sheep. And many of them use FIIFOO [is the term still in use?]

Something has just occurred to me, If it's a true radial there will be no branches of extensions. A true radial will be a single cable going to a single device, just like the spokes of a wheel. In other words like it used to be done...

So the limiting factor should be how many 2.5mm² T&E's can be installed into a MCB.

SUNRAY said:

Something has just occurred to me, If it's a true radial there will be no branches of extensions. A true radial will be a single cable going to a single device, just like the spokes of a wheel. ...

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I think you may be trying to be a bit too clever - at least some dictionaries (as well as a lot of 'common usage') have one of the definitions of 'radial' being "spreading out from a central point", or suchlike, and I don't think that precludes branches.

Kind Regards, John

Following on from that - does it mean that a 'true' ring circuit is one without spurs?

Or - is there no such thing as 'true' radials or rings?


Where did the term come from - apart from the OP and the video?

Perhaps 'true' radial circuit, in inverted commas take note, not the best term.

Can't think of a good name for a radial circuit which doesn't consist of any branches...

Continuous - that would be meaningless...

I'll leave that to someone else...

EFLImpudence said:

Following on from that - does it mean that a 'true' ring circuit is one without spurs? Or - is there no such thing as 'true' radials or rings? Where did the term come from ...

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Well, all one needs to do is agree on the definition of 'a ring circuit' or 'a radial circuit' - then, anything that satisfies the definition is a 'true' one of them, making the word 'true' redundant!

Kind Regards, John

sparkwright said:

Can't think of a good name for a radial circuit which doesn't consist of any branches...

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I'm not sure that there would often be a need for such a term, but you could always try "unbranching radial", or something like that, if you really wanted to.

Kind Regards, John

JohnW2 said:

I'm not sure that there would often be a need for such a term, but you could always try "unbranching radial", or something like that, if you really wanted to.

Kind Regards, John

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Well if CJR's theory is to be believed, there would have to be a name for it as we would all be doing it.

Not that we can really in real life.