That was my thought exactly.
Cable ID
- Thread starter antighsiothail
- Start date
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What if the hob develops a fault?
Well, ideally one would obviously have separate means of isolation for each - but it was you who introduced the concept of a dual outlet plate, which necessarily means that (without additional switches), at least one of the appliances could not be independently isolated.
With an FCU or (suitable) switch for the oven fed from the supply side of main cooker switch, oven and hob could both be isolated independently.
Kind Regards, John
It's not necessary.
Yes but because it was/is preferable to two cables from the switch.
That was not (seems to be now) the criterion.
Lots of things could be done - it depends what you want.
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Ok thanks for all the advice
It's obviously 'not necessary' if one is prepared to disconnect the cable to one appliance, so that one can continue using the other appliance, if the first one develops a fault which causes a protective device to operate (even when the appliance is 'off'). If one doesn't want to have to do that, a DP switch might be regarded as more 'convenient' (albeit we're talking about a very uncommon situation).
Kind Regards, John
On a side issue, was it standard practice in the 70's NOT to sleeve the earth wire in sockets and switches? Not one of the switches/sockets that I've looked at have the earth wires sleeved nor are they connected in any way to the metal pattress boxes!
Can't speak for the 70's I wasn't even alive. But so long as the box has one fixed lug, it's perfectly acceptable to earth it via the faceplate screws
I'm not sure of the timescales, but there are plenty of unsleeved earth wires and back boxes without explicit earth connections, other than via faceplate screws (in the case of sockets or metal switches) still out there. Mind you, green sleeving on earth wires was around in the 60s, probably earlier, so I don't know how common the bare earth wires were. Bare earth wires doubled back out of a JB and twisted together behind it was once a very common practice. I'm not sure how what you describe would have worked with plastic switches etc., which often/usually don't have an earth terminal (even today). If there was an earth wire in the cable (far from inevitable back then!) and it wasn't (couldn't be!) connected to the switch plate, I'm not sure what could have been done with it other than terminating it in the backbox terminal!
Kind Regards, John
Funny you should mention that, the last house we lived in before this, all the junction boxes had bare earth wires wrapped around them and twisted together. I never felt quite happy about it but as it was rented I left them alone.
Only if the faceplate screws are conductive and not made of nylon or other non conductive material.
... and, as I said, in the case of a light switch etc., obviously only if the faceplate is metal or otehrwise has an earth terminal which is connected to the faceplate screw rivets/eyelets.
Kind Regards, John
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