Joining / Extending cable

[Forty_Two]

I want the CU moved to the other side of the wall (which is inside the garage) and have it at head height. There are 7 x 2.5mm and 1.5mm cables which will not reach far enough (they will get through the wall and have about 30cm the other side but will not be long enough to have the CU at head height).
What is the best way of extending these cables?

 

[Forty_Two]

If they start sucking their teeth and suggesting putting cables in connector block and putting each one in a choc box then I would get another electrician

Oh how I wish that this was that easy !

 

[westward10]

If they start sucking their teeth and suggesting putting cables in connector block and putting each one in a choc box then I would get another electrician

Like this.

 

[Forty_Two]

Like this.View attachment 94631

Indeed . . . . . and to my untrained eye that looks awful

 

[Forty_Two]

Thanks for this video clip - I missed it earlier, I thought it was an advert. To my untrained eye this look looks like the solution. They could put that box where there CU is currently and run new cable through the wall (in my case 30cm cavity wall in the same way as in the video. (That Bundy guy does rabbit on a bit). I wonder of the electricians I've had out would feel insulted if I sent them a link to this clip?

 

[TJ Anderson]

It's your house, you're the homeowner, you're responsible for complying with building regulations, you do what you like.

There is no way that a qualified electrician, let alone 3 would be sucking air through their teeth not knowing how to extend some T&E cables. You have a few posts like this now, instead of the stories that just insult peoples intelligence, just say want you want to do.

 

[pc1966]

The DIN rail option has the advantage of being neat and ordered, but that example uses the green/yellow earth blocks for the CPC which joins them all together at that point.

While that is not an issue for normal operations it makes testing far harder as you cannot isolate a circuit's CPC at the CU, and very confusing for anyone who is unaware of such a common'ing of conductors.

Also most DIN terminals are screw fixing and not maintenance-free so they need to be accessible and checked occasionally in case they loosen. You can get some that are spring loaded and don't suffer from loosening due to vibration or thermal cycling (a bit like Wagos), but off hand I don't know part numbers.

 

[timhoward]

Also most DIN terminals are screw fixing and not maintenance-free so they need to be accessible and checked occasionally in case they loosen. You can get some that are spring loaded and don't suffer from loosening due to vibration or thermal cycling (a bit like Wagos), but off hand I don't know part numbers.

Places like cp farnell / RS sell Wago-like ones. CEF sometimes have Wago ones in.

 

[partplonker]

The DIN rail option has the advantage of being neat and ordered, but that example uses the green/yellow earth blocks for the CPC which joins them all together at that point.

While that is not an issue for normal operations it makes testing far harder as you cannot isolate a circuit's CPC at the CU, and very confusing for anyone who is unaware of such a common'ing of conductors.

It's not exactly a big deal though, you could just use yellow DIN rail connectors for your CPCs instead. It doesn't really matter what colour they are as long as, as you said, you don't use the green/yellow ones with the central screw and metal clips that link them to the rail.

I'm also wondering why they used grey terminals in the video instead of brown or red for the lines, that really triggers my OCD. Must have been what they had at the wholesaler that day.

 

[UNG]

I wonder of the electricians I've had out would feel insulted if I sent them a link to this clip?

If they didn't come up with that solution at the first viewing then they were clearly not electricians and also couldn't be bothered to search the internet or ask on a group like this

It shouldn't be that difficult to find an electrician that can do what you want but listing your location as North West puts you somewhere in an area of approximately 5,500 sq miles do you want to narrow that down a bit as you may be close enough to someone on here

 

[Forty_Two]

If they didn't come up with that solution at the first viewing then they were clearly not electricians and also couldn't be bothered to search the internet or ask on a group like this

It shouldn't be that difficult to find an electrician that can do what you want but listing your location as North West puts you somewhere in an area of approximately 5,500 sq miles do you want to narrow that down a bit as you may be close enough to someone on here

I'm in LIverpool

 

[pc1966]

It's not exactly a big deal though, you could just use yellow DIN rail connectors for your CPCs instead. It doesn't really matter what colour they are as long as, as you said, you don't use the green/yellow ones with the central screw and metal clips that link them to the rail.

I'm also wondering why they used grey terminals in the video instead of brown or red for the lines, that really triggers my OCD. Must have been what they had at the wholesaler that day.

Many places only stock grey & green/yellow, blue is sometimes there at a slight price premium.

As you say you get other colour (like brown and yellow) but not in every maker or size range, and often simply not stocked.

 

[pc1966]

Just to add, often in my work we just have grey (with labels) and the green/yellow for common earth/chassis connection as you often don't know what mix of circuits you will have.

But I also really like to see colour coding of cables (not just black and L1/L2/L3/N labels) and terminals whenever possible as it helps reduce mistakes.

 

[partplonker]

Just to add, often in my work we just have grey (with labels) and the green/yellow for common earth/chassis connection as you often don't know what mix of circuits you will have.

But I also really like to see colour coding of cables (not just black and L1/L2/L3/N labels) and terminals whenever possible as it helps reduce mistakes.

Me too. I just did a 3 phase enclosure, wired in singles and managed to get all the matching coloured terminals and jumper bars from CEF (I think the brand was Weiland?). Looks nice and neat seeing the correct coloured cables going into the matching terminals and as you say, reduces the changes of mistakes.

 

[Dave OCD]

I'm in LIverpool

I'd suggest messaging @telectrix , may well be within his patch and he's a highly experienced top Electrician.