Clarification on Terminating at Neutral and Earthing bars

[Ewan D]

Evening!
Hope I can get a lovely clear answer on this!

Looked in on a friends CU today. The story goes that a builder and previous to that, the old owner of the house did a fair amount of the electrics. Whilst no PIR has been done, the first thing that springs to mind is "what a mess!"
Anyway, long story short: Im going to spur off the downstairs final ring circuit from the CU to install a socket for my friend as he needs one right by the CU cupboard. The issue is that the CU has its Neutral bar very ,very, very well hidden by all the other conductors in the CU. My question: Is there an issue if I put the neutral conductor in a screw terminal already used by another neutral conductor? The reason I ask this, is that upon first inspection (and the horrible access to the CU) it looks like the only way I can safely get a neutral in, is by putting it into a screw hole already in use as I can barely get to the neutral bar. Im using 2.5mm and the conductor in the neutral bar is 2.5 also.

If this is a no-no, can you point me to the reg in the OSG and the regs themselves, as im going dotty looking for something.

Thanks to you all in advance for your advice,

Ewan

 

[telectrix]

sharing a N terminal between 2 circuits is not the best practice, but it's not a hanging offence. make sure, however, if it's a dual RCD CU< that you use the correct N bar for the RCD protecting the MCB that you are using. can you post a pic. of the CU with the lid off?

 

[Ewan D]

Hi- you're turning into my mentor! When I go around there again I will upload a pic. It's not a dual RCD. It is such a total head ache getting anywhere near the box as my friend had a cabinet made to cover it up when he moved in. He's not keen to take it off, which you can understand.... Any tips on getting access to total arses of bars seemingly hidden by conductors?

 

[Marvo]

Sometimes it's wort spending half an hour re-routing the wiring and making the CU neat rather than spending half an hour fighting with the existing mess whilst trying to connect up a cable.

 

[SirKit Breaker]

I'm with Marvo here. Label everything up so you can get it all back in the original positions, and rip it all out and tidy up, take a few piccys before as well. It will be good experience for you, and the next time you do any work it will be a whole lot easier for you.

Cheers.................Howard

 

[MDJ]

As Tel mentioned it isn't a hanging offence, I bet most have done it once over the years but I would try to avoid doing so as it is not good practise, that said it sounds like a re-connect of the DB is in order first.