Strange Lighting Circuit

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at0mic

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All the ceiling roses in my house only have one wire going to them. At first I just assumed that the loop ran through the switches. However, I checked a few switches and they only have one wire going to them as well. I traced the wires underneath the floorboards and discovered the roses and switches are wired up to a large black box.

Did this really used to be a genuine method to wire a house?

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Looks like a bit of DIY. I would hope no electrician would put a JB on top of a hot water pipe or put it where there is limited access.

White wires may mean he has used 90 deg instead of 70 deg cables so it could be OK but taking the earths out like that also seems strange.

I will guess with the earth connections the house originally had no earths to the lights and this was some ones way of getting earths to the lights?
 
I have seen a similar method before where a single enclosure is used as a main junction box for all the lights on the circuit, nothing inparticularly incorrect with the method however how it is done is another matter.
In the pic above it does look like a bit of DIY, earths are connected inside the enclosure nowadays and use green/yellow sleeve to ID them. Some very old installs I have seen have earths around the outside of JBs (twisted together) which is where the methodology of the person doing this job may have come from.
Not a good idea to have it on top of a hot water pipe too, guessing that the JB was there first?
 
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Seen connection made like this before on lighting circuits, CPCs a mess and could do with tidying up.
But as already mentioned, I guess the electrics were in place before the plastic pipe work.
 
Common way of wiring in the 60s and 70s, makes it a doddle to change light fittings LoL

It is called an RB1 junction box . Ashley rock make a similiar version still to this day.
 
It used to be done with an octopus junction box back in the day.

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Judging by the pipework, I would say it went in after the electrics?
 
I would have thought so.

The firm I worked for were still installing central joint boxes when I started my apprenticeship in 1997
 
at0mic said:
All the ceiling roses in my house only have one wire going to them. At first I just assumed that the loop ran through the switches. However, I checked a few switches and they only have one wire going to them as well. I traced the wires underneath the floorboards and discovered the roses and switches are wired up to a large black box.

Did this really used to be a genuine method to wire a house?

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Perfectly normal method.

The light fittings and switches will have minimal wiring thus making connecting them up painless.

Twisted earths outside the box - very normal in it's day.

Inacessible under a floor, yet fine for a loft space.

Probably never see it in the Wiki.
 
My old job went through a building refurb. All room electrics (sockets, lights etc) all connected to a room-located ceiling box (but were plugin ones rather than screw terminals), then each of these boxes were connected to the previous and next rooms.

In essence, each rooms 'supply box' were done in a ring, then local stuff to that room fed from this box in a radial.

If that makes sense?
 
D

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