What's this I've uncovered?

[scott488]

Just in the process of removing tiles in the kitchen and came across a hidden socket (well two actually). These were just sat behind the tiles. One looks like a standard single socket but I'm not sure of the other because of the extra wires in it. Anyone shed any light on this please?

 

[omega015]

Possibly where the boiler/heating controls once were? Have you tested to see if they are live or not? The fact they are "joined" together (badly) makes me believe they could be, so do be careful. If they are live, do you happen to know which circuit these are connected to on your fuse box? If not then using a multimeter/tester check for live, switch off one fuse, check for live again. Repeat on the next fuse until it tests as not live (and then double check for live/not live at that specific fuse again just in case your tester was playing up)

If it is live then have this made safe with some decent connectors like wagos and a blanking plate, unless your in a position to have the wires traced to the source/destination and remove the need for this junction.

Also keep in mind that if this is wiring related to your central heating/boiler etc.. then this might only be live when that is running so take extra care. Who knows what else the person who did this has done.

 

[omega015]

You mentioned two hidden sockets, can you upload a picture of the second one?

 

[scott488]

this is the second one that was hidden

 

[scott488]

And this is what is there altogether

 

[JohnD]

in your pic, red/yellow/blue plus black plus green+yellow suggests it is for a 2-way lighting switch.

It might be that the other switch is still in use, but will stop working if you remove any of the connections you have found.

It might become clearer if you chip away more of the plaster to see which cores from which cable. I think you will find a red and a black (plus earth) come from one (or more) and a red yellow blue (plus earth) come from another one (or more).

Those taped up ends are vile and quite dangerous as the tape may unwind or fall off.

 

[scott488]

Maybe the additional cables were for the heating as the boiler used to be in this corner. It was moved into a cupboard upstairs where the immersion heater would have been I guess. There is a switch the other side of the kitchen marked as "water heater" which does isolate the boiler upstairs.

 

[scott488]

There are 4 cables running into this box :

2 are red/black/earth
1 is Brown/blue/earth
The last is yellow/blue/red/earth