Blanking plates in conservatory

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Hi, help needed.

We moved into our house about three years ago.

In the conservatory are two blanking plates. These are on the outside wall (see pic).

I’d like to replace the blanking plate that’s nearest the wall (furthest away in the pic) with a double socket.

Behind each blanking plate are TWO twin and earth cables. The cables weren’t in terminal blocks or covered in tape so I assume they’re not live and connected up?!

I’ve wired up a double socket using both the cables and individual cables but it won’t work, so can’t be connected up.

Trouble is, I can’t for the life of me work out where the cable runs to. I’ve unscrewed all the sockets on the side of the house the conservatory is on, and there’s nothing that unconnected. Would I just be looking for an unconnected cable? Everything appears wired correctly.

Where would these cables go to? I assume they must be underground as they aren’t on the outside of the conservatory and the door is the other side.

Any idea what I should be looking out for. The cables obviously come from somewhere that I’m hoping will just need connecting up. There nothing on the consumer unit switched off that would indicate this is the issue.

Thanks in advance.
 

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Were the cables behind the blank plates made off as though they had been previously connected to sockets? I ask as if they were then perhaps the cable was damaged and has been disconnected and cut back at the source.

As for where they could have been fed from, sockets nearby are a good bet which you have already looked inside, are there any sockets on the outside wall upstairs near the conservatory? Also what does your light switch look like in the conservatory, if its a switch with a fuse then have a look behind there.

Again the cable may have been damaged or developed a fault so if you do find it please carry out some basic tests with a multi meter before you connect it back to the mains.
 
They might be under the floor upstairs, or back at the consumer unit
 
Thanks for the replies.

The cables were just cut off, not stripped as though they were connected previously. I reckon they are disconnected at the other end otherwise they’d have been connected to a terminal block for safety?

No sockets on the outside walls either.

Is that what I’m looking for, just opening up sockets and see if there’s a disconnected cable? Possibly another blanking plate somewhere?

The light switch is a dimmer with ceiling fan. Both dimmer switches. Would the sockets seriously be connected to the light switch? There’s no fuse. It’s on the other side of the conservatory so I doubt it but will have a look anyway.

The consumer unit doesn’t appear to have any other connections so I’m not sure it’s been connected to that. After all, there is power in the conservatory via another socket and the lighting, it’s just these two unused sockets that don’t have power.

Thanks again.
 
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Chances are the supply may be in the adjacent room. Is there a switched spur that is off? Are there any other sockets in the conservatory?
 
Have you checked under the floorboards inside the house? Probably a coil of cable somewhere adjacent to where the wall butts up to house.
 
Have you checked under the floorboards inside the house? Probably a coil of cable somewhere adjacent to where the wall butts up to house.

The only place could be the kitchen but it’s furthest away from the sockets and would have to go underground.

There’s one double socket in the conservatory that does work but it’s wired to an isolation switch on its own. Nothing else.
 
Where do the cables enter the boxes, side, top, bottom or as I suspect from behind as its face brick, they probably run in the cavity and may even continue into the house cavity
 
In a case like this the answer can only be "nobody knows" ! It sounds like the cables were probably put in while the conservatory was built, with the intension to connect them up later - as such, where the other ends are is really down to wherever the person doing it thought was a good place to get to. A good guess might be under the floorboards just inside the house - convenient to get the cables to while doing the conservatory, perhaps a coil left there with a view to getting them back to the CU or connected into the existing ring when that room was next up for any decorating work.
That's certainly something I've done in the past - got cables (or conduit) part way waiting till I'm doing work in the next room. In many cases it beats knocking a nicely decorated room apart.
 

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