First DIY electrical job - advice please sparks!

[ajcurrie]

Hi Guys,

I'm sure you must tire of fresh-faced young DIYers with lots of enthusiasm and little skill, but I’ve got to start somewhere.. some please could somebody sanity-check the following for me..

I want to move a light switch from one side of the door to the other. Under the face plate are four connections:

A twin & earth – my feed in from the lighting ring?
A twin & earth – my feed out to the ring again ?
Another twin and earth – which leads to my light fitting
A three core and earth – which leads to another switch for the same light.

I don’t think the cable will reach to the new location, and I don't feel happy replacing long runs of cabling yet... so I have bought the following:

10 meters of 1mm2 3core and earth rated 240v/13 amps.
25 meters of 1.5mm2 twin and earth, 240v at 20 amps.

They are the new colours so I’m planning to drawer a diagram out and then convert the colours beforehand so I know what needs to go where.

As for the actual cable joiners, I know you chaps insist people buy proper crimping tools to extending cables.. so I am planning on getting the following kit:

This ratchet crimper:
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat...d/cat/pro.jsp?id=18475&slotName=null&homeRef=

Some of these butt-splices:
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?id=70554&ts=81847

And some of this tape to wrap them in when I’m done:
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/sea...amalgamating&pn=1&pd=1&pi=1&cn=1&cd=1&x=0&y=0

Please tell me if this all seems reasonable, I’m feeling comfortable with what I’m doing but I just want to make sure I’m not missing anything that’ll fry me like a Cajun catfish. Obviously I’ll turn off the power before hand...

My home electrics book says any DIYer sparky work should be checked out by a registered spark, but if I was going to pay for that surely it’d cost about the same just to get him to do it anyway .. !

Cheers

Adam

 

[Adam_151]

Where do you plan to make the joins, and where do you plan to route the cable?

 

[ajcurrie]

This is in a bedroom with drywall, so i'll be above the wall in the loft. I plan to pull the cable up from one side, make the various joins and then route the cable down a new hole into the cavity on the other side of the door.

Sorry, should have mentioned that.

If the joins are done properly and taped up, could they just side in the wall cavity? Otherwise I guess I could fix them to a joist in the loft somehow.

 

[baldelectrician]

all joints must be acessable, so a patress box with a lid in the loft will do fine.

Do the joint fine and all you will need to drop to the new switch is a 3 core & earth.

If in doubt get a qualified electrician in.

 

[ajcurrie]

One three core and earth? SO are you suggesting I join the lighting ring cables together and take a spur from that? I was just going to extend the cables individually.. so they are the same as they are now, just longer?

Thanks

 

[Steve]

Pull the cables into the loft, and put a junction box there. Then run ONE 3+E to the new switch. This is all you need AFAICT.

BTW, lighting isn't a ring, its a radial. Look closely at yours, im sure you will agree.

You DRAW a diagram. You open a DRAWER. (sorry for being so pedantic, it bugs me!)

You aint taking spurs from anything. A spur is taken from a circuit to feed power to another power point or appliance. What you're taking is a switch drop.

 

[Stoday]

You DRAW a diagram. You open a DRAWER.

And you pull on DRAWERS. Ha! Ha! - Sorry, I couldn't resist it.