Moving a Spur...

[barki]

Hi all,

I'm replacing our kitchen. Just a minor electrical question since I was about to crack on and do something before I stopped and had a rare, sensible, moment and thought I'd better ask about this one before I do something silly.

Anyway - simple situation.

The old cooker hood/fan was wired to the downstairs sockets ring main which is on a 32A breaker. This circuit appears to be 2.5mm T&E I think.

Power for the old hood was taken from a fused spur at the point in the photo below. You can see the old socket cut out in the wall.

Although the new hood is going in almost the exact same place, my wife wants me to move the spur & switch about 1m to the left, so that it'll be accessed from within the cupboard.

I have a feeling that it won't suffice to use some terminal block and connect the 2x reds & 2x blacks to the brown & blue of my new 2.5mm cable burying in a chocblock and plastering over.

How do I best connect this up safely?

Obviously I want to avoid requiring fused protection in this location, as that would defeat the object.

Cheers in advance for anyones help

 

[Simon35]

What photo?

 

[barki]

Picture below

P.S - The existing cable it just wapped up in a terminal block temporarily while I work on the rest of the room.

Tom

 

[stillp]

Although the new hood is going in almost the exact same place, my wife wants me to move the spur & switch about 1m to the left, so that it'll be accessed from within the cupboard.

Are you aware of the requirements for cables to be run in 'safe zones'?

burying in a chocblock and plastering over

Not acceptable, it needs to be a maintenance-free connection, or be accessible for inspection.

 

[barki]

Hi,

Yep the run is within the 150mm band at the top of the room and also horizontal from the fused spur im fitting in the cupboard.

On your other point, I thought as much hence my question.

Could you help me out with an accepable, maintainence free method here that I can bury? Maybe crimping?

 

[EFLImpudence]

If that is the coving above, can you not fit a new piece of cable which is long enough.

1.5mm² cable would be satisfactory.

 

[barki]

Cheers for the idea EFL but I dont really want to pull the ceiling down to get to the other end of the existing wiring...I just plastered and painted it!

 

[winston1]

The right way is upstairs floorboards up, pull existing cables up and bring them down at the new location. If they are not long enough use a MF junction box under the floorboards.

 

[sparkwright]

As naff as it is, you may bury cables horizontally within 150mm from the ceiling.

As naff as it is, you may extend cables with crimps and heatshrink behind plaster.

But I'd prefer to go with Winston's advice on this and get the floor up above.

 

[barki]

Ok, it'll have to be the naff way for me, en suite is directly above with a tiled floor!

 

[winston1]

Ok, it'll have to be the naff way for me, en suite is directly above with a tiled floor!

You could try telling the wife that to do what she wants properly requires taking up the tiles in the en suite. She may just change her mind.

FCUs are best not in cupboards anyway. They need to be readily accessible in an emergency.

 

[sparkwright]

If you do crimp these 2.5mm2 T+E cables together, you need blue crimps for live and neutral; and red crimps for the earth.

And you need a proper ratchet crimping tool.

Anything else won't do.

 

[JohnW2]

And you need a proper ratchet crimping tool. Anything else won't do.

And nor will one of my allegedly 'proper crimping tools'!. I suppose it's just me, but I'm uneasy enough about 'single plane' manual crimping- so one has to be carefulat the best of times, but I'm particularly uneasy when it is done by someone who doe not have a lot of experience of doing it.

Again, it's probably just me, but I don't think I would want (and don't think I have) any manually crimped joints buried in any of the walls of my house.

Kind Regards, John

 

[sparkwright]

Nor me tbh. I'd rather have the fused spur left in place on show, don't think it would look so bad.

For some reason I prefer joints in floor voids or ceiling voids, and not solid walls, but maybe that's just me (and you?).

 

[JohnW2]

Nor me tbh. I'd rather have the fused spur left in place on show, don't think it would look so bad. ... For some reason I prefer joints in floor voids or ceiling voids, and not solid walls, but maybe that's just me (and you?).

We're clearly of a similar mind. Whether that makes us both 'silly', or what, I don't know!

I'm not even totally comfortable with ('maintenance-free') sprung joints ("maintenance-free" meaning that one can't check their tightness, or tighten them if necessary ), but that's probably me being even sillier!

Kind Regards, John