Backdoor Lightswitch on inner door jamb/revel

[baby_belling]

I am looking at getting the kitchen re-wired, the existing installation has the back kitchen door lightswitch on wall surround the door but as the back door is in the middle of the kitchen, the lightswitch has been placed actually inside the plaster that surrounds the door casing. I need to know if it would be possible to have the lightswtich in the same place or would it be against regulations and have to have it moved on the front face of the wall? It is handy to have it in the current position at the moment for the above reasons.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Are saying your light switch is within the reveals of the door recess? If so, providing the cables are routed within the permitted safe zones or buried in excess of 50mm within wall or mechanically protected. It sounds okay to me!

 

[Spark123]

Is it in a sheltered location i.e. if the door is left open will it get rained on?

 

[sparkwright]

Getting a cable to a switch on a reveal around the door is difficult to do so it's in a safe zone, in my opinion. Usually the cable is put in the cavity here, as often there is no obvious safe zone where the head of the door is.

Of course, cabvles in brick cavities are frowned on now.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

I often find that external door switches at kitchens are two way, so going down the reveal with cables (providing are not solid floor) under boards and up to the second way.
Even if not a two way it would be possible to route a single way switch using an alternative route as as safe zone.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Getting a cable to a switch on a reveal around the door is difficult to do so it's in a safe zone, in my opinion.

Given that a safe zone can be defined by an accessory on the other side of a wall, as long as its position can be determined, I see no problem with saying that a switch in a reveal defines a zone on the wall just around the corner from it.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Given that a safe zone can be defined by an accessory on the other side of a wall

Not necessarily, my understanding is that the accessory that is forming the safe zone, also has to be part of that circuit.
For example, a cable for a lighting circuit, if installed in the safe zone between socket accessories would be non-compliant, if the accessories of the lighting circuit did not also offer that safe zone.

 

[sparkwright]

Disregarding the option of running the cable vertically down the wall in a corner, then horizontally towards the switch... how would one run the cable down from the ceiling to the switch on a reveal, assuming the there is a reveal above the door?

One thought was to drill a hole from the bottom corner of the reveal above the door to the main face of the wall - yet drilling through a lintel is never a good idea.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

If I need to clarify, I would be running down from the switch, not the ceiling!

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Disregarding the option of running the cable vertically down the wall in a corner, then horizontally towards the switch... how would one run the cable down from the ceiling to the switch on a reveal, assuming the there is a reveal above the door?

One thought was to drill a hole from the bottom corner of the reveal above the door to the main face of the wall - yet drilling through a lintel is never a good idea.

I guess if one can run the cable directly vertical from ceiling to switch, you could route the cable between angle beading (if there) and lintel. Without the need to compromise the lintel by drilling!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Not necessarily, my understanding is that the accessory that is forming the safe zone, also has to be part of that circuit.
For example, a cable for a lighting circuit, if installed in the safe zone between socket accessories would be non-compliant, if the accessories of the lighting circuit did not also offer that safe zone.

True, but in this case that is not a concern.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

If I need to clarify, I would be running down from the switch, not the ceiling!

That's fine.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Not necessarily, my understanding is that the accessory that is forming the safe zone, also has to be part of that circuit.
For example, a cable for a lighting circuit, if installed in the safe zone between socket accessories would be non-compliant, if the accessories of the lighting circuit did not also offer that safe zone.

True, but in this case that is not a concern.

In this case!
But reading your post regarding the safe zone, I thought this was best mentioned, as it could have suggested or been interpreted otherwise.
Some think that because there are accessories on the wall, that this automatically creates a safe zone for any cable they please to route there.

Given that a safe zone can be defined by an accessory on the other side of a wall

The cable and accessory must be connected and part of the same circuit.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

But that's a generic requirement.

If an accessory creates a safe zone on its own side then subject to certain conditions it creates one on the other side.

The whole concept of there being one on the other side of the wall, and by extension (IMO) there being one just around the corner of the wall, is predicated on there being one in the first place.

"Given that a safe zone can be defined by an accessory on the other side of a wall, as long as its position can be determined, I see no problem with saying that a switch in a reveal defines a zone on the wall just around the corner from it."

You have to take it as read that the accessory can create a safe zone in the first place.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Can be as generic as you want, your comment could still have been misinterpreted to the uninformed!
The reverse side is only considered safe if the walls' thickness is 100mm or less, so again not necessarily so!
And I have rarely come across a situation were the reveal of an external door's reverse side has formed a wall that can be fixed to, they are normally part of the structure of the internal leaf of an the external wall.