Mains box to Consumer unit SWA or tails?

[grandfortune]

HI all,

usually take tails form a MEB box to consumer unit no matter what the length as long as i can get the 50mm depth, builder has told me he wants it in SWA, ive told him its pretty much impossible to terminate it right if i use SWA also i run up the cavity with the tails and there is no way i can get SWA up there so will have to run inside up the wall which i hate doing, what do you guys do if using SWA??

Cheers
Grand

 

[davesparks]

I think you would have to install a switchfuse in the meter box regardless of the length, otherwise you'd be relying on the company fuse to provide the protection.

 

[grandfortune]

yes , i usually fit a KMF as i run the tails, new builder who seems to know more than most as usually you can tell them anything to make your life easy with the install, but he seems to know quite alot about the regs as we were going round the property. ill probably be able to do it in tails when i explained the ball ache of installing SWA.

Cheers
Grand

 

[Midwest]

yes , i usually fit a KMF as i run the tails, new builder who seems to know more than most as usually you can tell them anything to make your life easy with the install, but he seems to know quite alot about the regs as we were going round the property. ill probably be able to do it in tails when i explained the ball ache of installing SWA.

Cheers
Grand

You should be telling him, he's only qualified to lay bricks one on top of other

 

[davesparks]

yes , i usually fit a KMF as i run the tails, new builder who seems to know more than most as usually you can tell them anything to make your life easy with the install, but he seems to know quite alot about the regs as we were going round the property. ill probably be able to do it in tails when i explained the ball ache of installing SWA.

Cheers
Grand

What ball ache is there with installing SWA? I've never yet had any problem getting them through a house when a submain is required, it's not like it's ever anything particularly big.
I certainly wouldn't be using insulated and sheathed tails as a cable for a submain, that smells a lot like a lash up to me.

 

[Dave OCD]

The last SWA submain I installed in a house between a garage and an internal cupboard where the CU was sited was a real pain, used 25mm 3 core and it was like an iron bar and very inflexible, for some reason it's trickier at that size than it was years ago, unless I'm getting old and weak.

 

[davesparks]

The last SWA submain I installed in a house between a garage and an internal cupboard where the CU was sited was a real pain, used 25mm 3 core and it was like an iron bar and very inflexible, for some reason it's trickier at that size than it was years ago, unless I'm getting old and weak.

25mm seems quite large for a domestic supply, the last one I did was a 63A supply on 10mm for a three bed house.

 

[Dave OCD]

Yes I'm sure 16mm would have been fine Dave [12m run and also partly under an insulated floor] but it was an all electric property and I just happened to have enough 25mm left over from another job. So I made it hard work for myself really.

 

[davesparks]

Yes I'm sure 16mm would have been fine Dave [12m run and also partly under an insulated floor] but it was an all electric property and I just happened to have enough 25mm left over from another job. So I made it hard work for myself really.

That's makes sense, use up the offcuts, otherwise you end up like me with a shed full of offcuts which might come in handy one day but you never use.

 

[Ian1981]

The last SWA submain I installed in a house between a garage and an internal cupboard where the CU was sited was a real pain, used 25mm 3 core and it was like an iron bar and very inflexible, for some reason it's trickier at that size than it was years ago, unless I'm getting old and weak.

Might have been LS0H it's a biatch to strip

 

[Dave OCD]

That's makes sense, use up the offcuts, otherwise you end up like me with a shed full of offcuts which might come in handy one day but you never use.

Yep been there.

 

[Dave OCD]

Might have been LS0H it's a biatch to strip

It was XLPE rather than PVC Ian which is definitely tougher.

 

[davesparks]

Yep been there.

Where, my shed? It wasn't you who knicked the rubble sack full of stripped copper out of it a couple of years ago was it?

 

[Dave OCD]

Erm no comment. It would be a long journey for me Dave for the sake of one bag of copper. No I meant been there as in the same situation as you well know.

 

[Ian1981]

It was XLPE rather than PVC Ian which is definitely tougher.

Tho bs 6724 swa has xlpe insulation but LS0H bedding which is tougher than the average xlpe swa

 

[Dave OCD]

I think it probably was Ian, it certainly had me sweating.