connector box / choc box

[HawkEye244]

What is the difference between a connector box and a choc box?

The connector box is 75 pence, the choc box is one pound.

I am shortly doing a diy home installation of new ring circuits and will be using these to keep the existing cables live before taking them offline.

 

[EFLImpudence]

What is the difference between a connector box and a choc box?
The connector box is 75 pence, the choc box is one pound.

Name and price.

 

[HawkEye244]

Name and price.

there must be at least one functional difference between them ?

 

[EFLImpudence]

Not really, they are just cable clamp boxes that house ordinary connector blocks.

 

[HawkEye244]

Not really, they are just cable clamp boxes that house ordinary connector blocks.

are terminal blocks also an option? I already have some of these and would prefer not to buy more.

 

[stillp]

are terminal blocks also an option?

If you can enclose them and provide strain relief.

 

[EFLImpudence]

What do you mean "an option"?

 

[HawkEye244]

I mean can terminal blocks be used for connecting 2.5mm cable on an old installation temporarily ?

Stillp appears to say yes. I'll wrap it instulating tape but I'm not sure what strain relief means.. ?

 

[stillp]

Insulating tape is not suitable.
They need to be in a rigid enclosure, and strain relief means that the terminations (connections) are not subjected to any strain when the cables outside the enclosure are moved about.

 

[JohnW2]

I mean can terminal blocks be used for connecting 2.5mm cable on an old installation temporarily ?

"Temporary" has to be just as proper/safe as permanent, particularly since the former often morphs into the latter! As you've been told, 'terminal (connector) blocks' are acceptable IF they are inside some sort of enclosure and if there is 'strain relief'.

Stillp appears to say yes. I'll wrap it instulating tape but I'm not sure what strain relief means.. ?

Insulating tape is not adequate/acceptable. It needs to be in a 'box'. 'Strain relief' refers to the cable clamps which prevent the cables being yanked out of the terminals.

Just invest 75p or £1 and get ione of the boxes you mentioned.

Kind Regards, John

 

[stillp]

'Strain relief' refers to the cable clamps which prevent the cables being yanked out of the terminals.

Not just against being yanked out, but against being loosened, which leads to high resistance and overheating.

 

[JohnW2]

Not just against being yanked out, but against being loosened, which leads to high resistance and overheating.

Yes, that too - just yanked, as well as 'yanked out'.

Kind Regards, John

 

[conny]

I'm a bit concerned you are questioning what 'strain relief' is but you intend to be "doing a diy home installation of new ring circuits"..............

Do you intend to do the complete install yourself including testing and commissioning?

 

[JohnW2]

I'm a bit concerned you are questioning what 'strain relief' is but you intend to be "doing a diy home installation of new ring circuits"..............

To be frank, I'm more concerned that he needed to ask the question in the first place, and then proposed to wrap a connector block in 'insulating tape', than that he doesn't know what 'strain relief' means.

Kind Regards, John

 

[mwatsonxx]

I'm a bit concerned you are questioning what 'strain relief' is but you intend to be "doing a diy home installation of new ring circuits"..............

Do you intend to do the complete install yourself including testing and commissioning?

Apparently he relies on the fact that the A&E and fire station are just around the corner, and a bit further down the road there's an undertakers. So he's well covered for anything that could possibly go wrong.