Building Regs - Swapping a ceiling rose

[ban-all-sheds]

Am I being naive then, when they claim it is 17th edition compliant?

I think you are, if not naive, not displaying a healthy degree of skepticism.

As that seems to be one hell of statement to make, if they can't back it up!

Manufacturers claim all sorts of things, not all of them true. Often the bigger the lie the easier it is to get away with, because people think "how could they lie about a thing like that".

Now - I'm not suggesting that Ashley & Rock are an untrustworthy company, and I'm sure they have made a good product, but we only have their word for that, and that's not a workable system. You can't have a situation where people certify that they've complied with the wiring regulations because they take on trust what someone who wants them to buy their product tells them.

IMO until there is a BS EN standard for maintenance free connections and the Wiring Regulations recognise them as being suitable for inaccessible locations they should not be used.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Fair point!

 

[Risteard]

I have always maintained (excuse the pun) that they do not currently comply. However, as stated, arguably it could be listed as a deviation which permit new innovations.

The new Commentary states that they don't explicity comply with the Regulations but that it is envisaged that before long they will be able to claim compliance with British Standards and therefore comply.

If I'm feeling helpful later on I might post up the quotation from the 17th Commentary.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Once there's a BS for that type of box, which shows that they have been tested and shown to have good mechanical and thermal endurance qualities, are made of plastic which doesn't catch fire, can carry the current they are rated at and so forth then I'd be a lot happier to use them.

Although being an old Luddite I can't help but remain generally distrustful of that type of push-in contact.

 

[Pedro26]

I fell for the compliance hype some time back because of the Voltimum website that sends me industry news. I bought several of these new junction boxes, but I should really have sent them back. (They are just gathering dust). In this case they do not do what they say on the tin. The wires just kept slipping back out of the spring jaws of the pushfit clamps, so I reverted to normal screw clamp type junction boxes.

It may be that the pushfit spring clamps work well on some very soft copper wires, but on the cables I tried they didn't seem to be able to get a firm purchase, which I found quite alarming.

That being the case perhaps with the design I bought (which looks identical to the those in the first picture) they would fail an approved acceptance test.

I guess I should have complained and given them some feedback in order to alert them to the problem. The supplier does have liability as they were not fit for purpose and were in fact far worse than the screw clamp type. The hype went something like old type not accessible for maintenance therefore contravened some facet of the new regs.. It sort of suggested that you would/should be able to access them and periodically tighten the terminal clamp screws.

So BAS is right to be mistrustful of them.