What would you do?

[Spikenaylor]

Hi there.
just fitted an external floodlight and the feed comes from the lighting circuit in the loft.
already a external 400W flood fitted around the corner to the one I was fitting.
Used artic cable 1.5mm (why does it have to be blue or yellow, awful colours to have on the outside of the house).
orignal feed to floodlight already fitted came from old junction box in the lighting circuit. Replaced this feed via dp switch(isolation) to new junction box that feeds both floodlights.


house has Old wiring, junction boxes all round. earth cable stripped back and twisted toghether with no sleeving outside the junction boxes. feed from one JB to the next was twin with an thin separate wire providing the earth. the jb I needed to use had the cover missing and had insualtion just sitting on it.
I replaced the junction box with a new one and used 20A terminal strip inside junction box for extra connections and the earths with sleeving. Replaced the old twin cable and seperate earth with new twin&earth with again 20A terminal strip for the earths outside the junction box.

tests check out fine.

obviously the rest of the house would be like this and I know it was the practice of the time.
my question is have I done enough for my little part of the circuit. or do i have to sort out the earths correctly with sleeving and possibly inside a junction box and do i have to then fix all the junction boxes in the loft area.

any advice would be appreciated.
many thanks
Spikenaylor

 

[GT1]

Why have you used arctic (coloured) flex. ?
I would've just used black 1.5mm flex.

 

[Mark42]

Yuk! It sounds like you need to price for a total re-wire!

To answer your question, blue and yellow are the standard sheath colours for building sites etc: 230V and 110V respectively.

And it’s ARCTIC cable, not artic; that’s a kind of truck (sorry, it’s one of my pet hates, like flourescents).

So-called because the thermoplastic sheath is still flexible at low temperatures. I don’t think it’s good for fixed wiring, and as you correctly identify, bloody ugly. Personally I’d use Hi-tuf or NYY for external lights.

BTW, that’s now 800W (3.5A) of external lighting load on an antique upstairs lighting circuit. Is the wiring up to it?

 

[UNG]

And it’s ARCTIC cable, not artic; that’s a kind of truck (sorry, it’s one of my pet hates, like flourescents).

Glad I'm not on my own, a few years ago fired a complaint at Screwfix as they sold flourescents on their website it was all fixed an email back within 30mins

 

[SirKit Breaker]

Twisting the CPC's together in the manner you describe was once a standard practice many many moons ago. It is not acceptable now, but then the wiring regs are not retrospective, so if all else is good, then leave it be. Make sure you make some comment about it, but it doesnt demand a rewire, you could reterminate it all into a new JB or enclosure if they will pay. The only problem i can see with exposed and unsleeved CPC's is the potential for fire, as they tend to get hot and glow for a short time under fault conditions.

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

 

[Dave 85]

When I do a minor works, job, I'll make sure the circuit tests ok, has earth and is not rubber. I will always install RCD protection if required.
Im not gonna go around the house pulling up boards/insulation trying to find problems that I have no business trying to find. If I saw a JB with external earths/no sleeving etc Im not gonna go re-doing it on a £75 quid job.

The way I see it, its like it says on a EICR cert (something along the lines of 'concealed wiring cannot be inspected')
Trying to bring every circuit you do an MW on up to the standard that you would have wired it yourself, will only result in A: You spending half you're life working for free or B: You getting a reputation for demanding £300 for jobs that you quoted £100 for.

 

[mechelec]

Twisting the CPC's together in the manner you describe was once a standard practice many many moons ago. It is not acceptable now, but then the wiring regs are not retrospective, so if all else is good, then leave it be. Make sure you make some comment about it, but it doesnt demand a rewire, you could reterminate it all into a new JB or enclosure if they will pay. The only problem i can see with exposed and unsleeved CPC's is the potential for fire, as they tend to get hot and glow for a short time under fault conditions.

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

Have you seen the CPC "glow" under fault conditions because I havnt. This would mean during every fault the insulation would melt. Disconnection times are kept low to ensure that no damage is caused components, amongs other reasons.

 

[Dave 85]

Have you seen the CPC "glow" under fault conditions because I havnt. This would mean during every fault the insulation would melt. Disconnection times are kept low to ensure that no damage is caused components, amongs other reasons.

Yeah sounds dubious to me. Especially as almost all new domestic work/minor work will, if done properly D/C within 200 milliseconds of an earth fault occuring (a 30ma fault that is, much quicker if it was a 30amp fault)

 

[Mark42]

Yeah sounds dubious to me. Especially as almost all new domestic work/minor work will, if done properly D/C within 200 milliseconds of an earth fault occuring (a 30ma fault that is, much quicker if it was a 30amp fault)

^ Yup, that's what the adiabatic equation is for! No heat transfer due to no temperature change.