RCD before CU

[ban-all-sheds]

Yes, but where does the main earth originate?

Is the supply TT or not?

Would the person who gave that a thumbs down please provide a rational explanation of why I should not have asked those questions.

EDIT:

Wow - there are now 2 people on this site who don't think those questions should have been asked.

I really would like to know why, because I can't see anything wrong with them, and I wonder what I'm missing.

 

[JohnD]

A L & N from the mcb was taken to the hall box.

This description is probably wrong, as domestic MCBs are almost invariably SP.

 

[scousespark]

[

With pleasure.

A L & N from the mcb was taken to the hall box. terminal strips was used to feed a wire from here to the living room. A right F up. It is electrically sound, just complex. The renovators did it the hard way.

If you find looping in at the switch complex, I'd say you are not competent to undertake this work. This technique makes the connection easy to test, as you are working at eye level. The connections are also accessible for inspection. It's not anew practice and the renovators haven't done anything the hard way.

 

[ColinJacobson]

[

With pleasure.

A L & N from the mcb was taken to the hall box. terminal strips was used to feed a wire from here to the living room. A right F up. It is electrically sound, just complex. The renovators did it the hard way.

If you find looping in at the switch complex, I'd say you are not competent to undertake this work. This technique makes the connection easy to test, as you are working at eye level. The connections are also accessible for inspection. It's not anew practice and the renovators haven't done anything the hard way.

The convention is via the ceiling roses and and switch cable two the light switch. Ramming terminal strip into tight boxes is not a good practice.

My competence is guaranteed as I fixed it all and it works and it is safe - the earth wires were removed from the metal light plates. I re-instated them

 

[Monkeh]

[

With pleasure.

A L & N from the mcb was taken to the hall box. terminal strips was used to feed a wire from here to the living room. A right F up. It is electrically sound, just complex. The renovators did it the hard way.

If you find looping in at the switch complex, I'd say you are not competent to undertake this work. This technique makes the connection easy to test, as you are working at eye level. The connections are also accessible for inspection. It's not anew practice and the renovators haven't done anything the hard way.

The convention is via the ceiling roses and and switch cable two the light switch. Ramming terminal strip into tight boxes is not a good practice.

Using a suitably deep box and looping in at the switches is a far superior method, the reason you're used to it being done at the roses is because chiseling out for those boxes used to be a huge pain.

 

[ColinJacobson]

It's not difficult for him to gain an understanding:

//www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics:earthing-arrangements

TN-S. Earth around the main incoming cable.

 

[ColinJacobson]

When you say "Main Breaker" are you referring to an RCD mainswitch?

The main switch on the CU.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

The convention is via the ceiling roses and and switch cable two the light switch.

That's the way it used to be done.

Increasingly it is no longer done that way, and for very good reasons.

Ramming terminal strip into tight boxes is not a good practice.

If the boxes are too shallow that is not good, but there is absolutely nothing whatsoever wrong with the topology.

My competence is guaranteed as I fixed it all and it works and it is safe

Unfortunately there's more to a guarantee of competence and safety than a simple functional test.

Did you test for insulation resistance, cpc continuity, polarity and fault loop impedance?

What rewiring did you do? Did it result in you assuming responsibility for the granularity and type of RCD protection for the circuit, which re-raises the question of what type of RCD is used, and of course the problem of there only being one for the entire installation.

the earth wires were removed from the metal light plates. I re-instated them

I sincerely hope you did do a continuity test with a proper low-ohm meter, otherwise simply connecting them would have been far from competent.

Negligent, even.

 

[ColinJacobson]

Using a suitably deep box and looping in at the switches is a far superior method, the reason you're used to it being done at the roses is because chiseling out for those boxes used to be a huge pain.

Unless the boxes are deep enough with factory made terminals, then everything else is a bodge. Small terminal strip rammed into small boxes is grossly unprofessional, no matter how easy to test.

 

[Monkeh]

So is it grossly unprofessional to replace the terminal strip in a fluorescent fitting in order to fit the loop in?

There's nothing wrong with looping in at the switch. Although, personally, I wouldn't use a terminal strip, but a Wago or similar.

 

[JohnD]

everything else is a bodge..

you are very dogmatic for a man without the experience of a professional electrician. Why's that?

 

[ColinJacobson]

There's nothing wrong with looping in at the switch. Although, personally, I wouldn't use a terminal strip, but a Wago or similar.

My point is terminal strip rammed in with wires stretched. Not nice at all. I find it amazing that people would actually condone this practice.

 

[Monkeh]

There's nothing wrong with looping in at the switch. Although, personally, I wouldn't use a terminal strip, but a Wago or similar.

My point is terminal strip rammed in with wires stretched. Not nice at all. I find it amazing that people would actually condone this practice.

So you're objecting to looping in at the switch because of one bad install?

 

[ColinJacobson]

There's nothing wrong with looping in at the switch. Although, personally, I wouldn't use a terminal strip, but a Wago or similar.

My point is terminal strip rammed in with wires stretched. Not nice at all. I find it amazing that people would actually condone this practice.

So you're objecting to looping in at the switch because of one bad install?

No. I find it amateurish to use terminal connectors in small cramped boxes.

 

[Monkeh]

There's nothing wrong with looping in at the switch. Although, personally, I wouldn't use a terminal strip, but a Wago or similar.

My point is terminal strip rammed in with wires stretched. Not nice at all. I find it amazing that people would actually condone this practice.

So you're objecting to looping in at the switch because of one bad install?

No. I find it amateurish to use terminal connectors in small cramped boxes.

So, you object to junction boxes too?

Stop being obstinate and see the advantages of looping in at the switch.