I am a retired electrician doing a home rewire.
I'm taking my time because I fell about 3m off a ladder & put both bones through the inside of my right leg.
That has slowed things down a lot...
My understanding of the AS:3000 regs is that all circuits in a domestic residence must be RCD protected.
When we moved here I replaced the tiny & cramped outside switchboard with a bigger one.
Later I fitted a loadcentre in the kitchen so I didn't have to go out in the cold & wet to troubleshoot.
I am totally upgrading the kitchen loadcentre.
It is a 36 pole, 3x 12 with all Clipsal Max9 internals.
Although a major clean up has rendered it unnecessary, I was a hoarder so I went for the Arc Protect breakers for extra protection due to the extra fuel load in the building at the time.
My question is regarding the sub-mains into the loadcentre.
The way I read the regs is that it has to be 30mA protected or protected by an earthed enclosure inside of walls.
Being a submains, it cannot be 30mA protected if the final circuits are also 30mA protected.
That would make the section up inside the wall from the switchboard to the ceiling & down inside the wall from the ceiling to the loadcentre needing to be in an earthed enclosure.
Steel pipe or conduit would be a pain to fit.
I found a supplier that sold small lengths of Anaconda Flex Metal Conduit with plastic outer sheathing so I picked up some.
This has a spiral wound galvanised iron central section with plastic outer sheathing.
I have the correct metal end fittings with screwed lock rings that have a wire tunnel & screws to make the earth connections.
The highest part of our ceiling is low enough that you need to remain bent over which makes working up there awkward - especially when you have a lot of years on the bones.
I rescued undamaged dressed pine from a skip after a local flood & ran two strips the full length of the ceiling.
I fitted sections of ply spaced along it so you can scoot along on your knees or backside but gaps allow you to still see underneath & you can unscrew & lift any ply sections for access.
I also salvaged several lengths of the very small cable tray about 300mm wide which I mounted under the truss cross beams.
They are screwed on but the timber is so hard that only short screws could be used even when predrilled, so I used 2 CABAC stainless steel cable ties as reinforcing on each truss.
They are 7.9mm wide 316 cable ties that I had in the cupboard. They have a loading of 150kg each so I don't expect any failures.
The cable tray is upside down so I can scoot along & inspect the cable or easily fit extra cable from underneath using plenty of good quality cable ties.
Fitting the cable underneath also stops any pesky rodents from having a nibble as they travel along - although that normally isn't a problem here.
A length of cable tray is also fitted on its side across a truss to take cables to & from the main cable tray to the loadcentre.
All cables are protected by being fitted in flexible conduit where they go over the edge of the cable tray.
My questions:
1. Is my reading of the regs requiring earthed enclosure correct?
2. Will Anaconda be suitable as an earthed enclosure in the walls for the submains?
3. Can you see any problems with the cable tray system.
Many thanks,
Brian.
I'm taking my time because I fell about 3m off a ladder & put both bones through the inside of my right leg.
That has slowed things down a lot...
My understanding of the AS:3000 regs is that all circuits in a domestic residence must be RCD protected.
When we moved here I replaced the tiny & cramped outside switchboard with a bigger one.
Later I fitted a loadcentre in the kitchen so I didn't have to go out in the cold & wet to troubleshoot.
I am totally upgrading the kitchen loadcentre.
It is a 36 pole, 3x 12 with all Clipsal Max9 internals.
Although a major clean up has rendered it unnecessary, I was a hoarder so I went for the Arc Protect breakers for extra protection due to the extra fuel load in the building at the time.
My question is regarding the sub-mains into the loadcentre.
The way I read the regs is that it has to be 30mA protected or protected by an earthed enclosure inside of walls.
Being a submains, it cannot be 30mA protected if the final circuits are also 30mA protected.
That would make the section up inside the wall from the switchboard to the ceiling & down inside the wall from the ceiling to the loadcentre needing to be in an earthed enclosure.
Steel pipe or conduit would be a pain to fit.
I found a supplier that sold small lengths of Anaconda Flex Metal Conduit with plastic outer sheathing so I picked up some.
This has a spiral wound galvanised iron central section with plastic outer sheathing.
I have the correct metal end fittings with screwed lock rings that have a wire tunnel & screws to make the earth connections.
The highest part of our ceiling is low enough that you need to remain bent over which makes working up there awkward - especially when you have a lot of years on the bones.
I rescued undamaged dressed pine from a skip after a local flood & ran two strips the full length of the ceiling.
I fitted sections of ply spaced along it so you can scoot along on your knees or backside but gaps allow you to still see underneath & you can unscrew & lift any ply sections for access.
I also salvaged several lengths of the very small cable tray about 300mm wide which I mounted under the truss cross beams.
They are screwed on but the timber is so hard that only short screws could be used even when predrilled, so I used 2 CABAC stainless steel cable ties as reinforcing on each truss.
They are 7.9mm wide 316 cable ties that I had in the cupboard. They have a loading of 150kg each so I don't expect any failures.
The cable tray is upside down so I can scoot along & inspect the cable or easily fit extra cable from underneath using plenty of good quality cable ties.
Fitting the cable underneath also stops any pesky rodents from having a nibble as they travel along - although that normally isn't a problem here.
A length of cable tray is also fitted on its side across a truss to take cables to & from the main cable tray to the loadcentre.
All cables are protected by being fitted in flexible conduit where they go over the edge of the cable tray.
My questions:
1. Is my reading of the regs requiring earthed enclosure correct?
2. Will Anaconda be suitable as an earthed enclosure in the walls for the submains?
3. Can you see any problems with the cable tray system.
Many thanks,
Brian.
