wiring for hydronic plinth heater thermostat

[dolphinfreindly]

1st post and Hi to all, its a great forum...anyhoo enough of the brown nosing LOL

I am replacing a plinth heater and went to rewire the stat, however it has been wired with 2.5mm cable fed from the socket ring. This feeding to a DP switch with 3A fuse before the heater.
What is there has been wired with 1 stat terminal to live supply, another stat terminal to live load, but and heres my question, the two neutrals have been choc blocked together on one side with a single neutral wire coming out and then connected to the stat. I should add that the choc block had been fully enclosed with insulation tape. I can see this has been done as you cant get 2x2.5 wires into the stat terminal. I dont really want to rewire as it would mean lifting the floor and wrecking the wall, but I do want it to be safe.
So can I just reuse this method or is it really bad? There is no patress and I found this when I removed the stat off the wall.

any help appreciated as its currently very cold in the kitchen.

thanks for reading

 

[Steve]

Sounds ok. The neutral isnt switched.

I gather this heater is one which uses heat from the central heating pipes, and blows a fan over it, thus contains no electric heater of its own (hence the 3a fuse)

 

[dolphinfreindly]

yes its a hydronic heater.
When I first saw the wiring I thought it was a bit of a bodge but the switch I fit to the heater will be a DP.

thanks for your reply

 

[electronicsuk]

yes its a hydronic heater.
When I first saw the wiring I thought it was a bit of a bodge but the switch I fit to the heater will be a DP.

thanks for your reply

Obviously it's no use now the floor is down, but worth noting that anything after the 3A fused connection unit could have been run in 1.5 or even 1.0mm cable, rather than the more unwieldy 2.5 that's causing you grief.

 

[dolphinfreindly]

Obviously it's no use now the floor is down, but worth noting that anything after the 3A fused connection unit could have been run in 1.5 or even 1.0mm cable, rather than the more unwieldy 2.5 that's causing you grief.

thanks, the cable following from the 3A FCU will be the flex that is prewired to the heater unit.
from what I can see, the 2.5 comes up from the socket ring, to the stat, then goes down the wall to the 3A FCU then to the heater. Which Im guessing is wrong as the stat is then only protected by the 30A fuse for the ring. Should this be wired so the stat is after the 3A FCA, ie ring to 3A FCU then to stat then to heater?

 

[Taylortwocities]

Yes, it should be spur from the ring to the 3A FCU.
Then FCU to the stat. Then stat to the heater fan.

You'll only need to run the live through the stat, so you could use 1.0mm flex to the stat and do all your other connections on/behind the FCU .

 

[dolphinfreindly]

taylor, thanks, so you mean run the 2.5 into the 3A FCU then from there run 1mm to the stat and back to the heater?

 

[smudge07]

Sorry to hijack this thread but I am struggling a bit to get my head around installation of a hydronic heater - pictures below. I am added units and am looking into a hydronic heater to replace the radiator. Can I plug the heater directly into the socket that is already there. Also is there an easy way of attaching the unit to the radiator connections. I was also concerned that the plinth heater wont work aswell as the radiator that is there but having read a lot of the post here not worried anymore - almost bought an electric only one - couldn't find a good review about them anywhere.

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• smudge07
• 12 Feb 2010
• 2

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• smudge07
• 12 Feb 2010
• 2

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• smudge07
• 12 Feb 2010
• 2

 

[londonboy]

You should really start a new thread... in the plumbing section!

 

[electronicsuk]

taylor, thanks, so you mean run the 2.5 into the 3A FCU then from there run 1mm to the stat and back to the heater?

Yes.

 

[dolphinfreindly]

thanks for your help everyone, but as another consideration, I am not a electrician so can I legally do the work myself (I am based in Scotland)? I plan to put in some more sockets (ony 1 or 2) and redo the lighting. I have checked the wiki but the link no longer works.

 

[dolphinfreindly]

well we decided to replace the wiring, luckily the old wiring was 'pullable' throught stud walls so we just attached the new wiring to the old as it was pulled out. Here is a schematic of what did....

thanks to everyone for the advice.