Electrical question

[Hemsby]

Hi,

Need some advice for a small electrical job in my Kitchen, I will not be doing the work myself but wonder If what I think could be done, can be done, not to save money but to minimise disruption .

I installed the Kitchen 2 years ago including a built in oven & hob, (alongside a total bungalow professional rewire) now we are fitting a Range cooker (twice the width) the result being the Cooker isolating switch above the new cooker #-o .

Rather than chasing the wall down from ceiling with a new feed & switch to the side of the range cooker can I ask the sparks to chase across from the existing feed & switch about 300mm to a new switch connecting the wires with a short length of 6mm cable and a terminal block in the old switch then blanking it off, will this comply with regs :?:

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks

 

[blackrodd]

Last I heard, NO horizontal , or angled cables, chased, or other wise are allowed.
Cable drops have to be straight down.
If you're cables are chased in, you may be able to pull the cable free, from above, if they aren't a tight fit, and you may be going in the right direction for longer cable length.
HTH Rodders

 

[Hemsby]

Last I heard, NO horizontal , or angled cables, chased, or other wise are allowed.
Cable drops have to be straight down.
If you're cables are chased in, you may be able to pull the cable free, from above, if they aren't a tight fit, and you may be going in the right direction for longer cable length.
HTH Rodders

Thanks for your reply not what I wanted to hear , but thought that would be the case.

Everything would be ok with the current installation if it was ok to have the isolating switch just above the new cooker although not ideal, but I think this may be a No No for the regs. I really did not want to chase 1.5 Meter in the plaster as patching never looks good (hammer) .

So will just have to see what the sparks can conjure up for me.

Thanks again

Keith

 

[RogerS]

Last I heard, NO horizontal , or angled cables, chased, or other wise are allowed.
Cable drops have to be straight down.
If you're cables are chased in, you may be able to pull the cable free, from above, if they aren't a tight fit, and you may be going in the right direction for longer cable length.
HTH Rodders

That's not true. Horizontal cables are perfectly permissible. I'm not sure about best practice re effectively 'hiding' the terminal block (I'm guessing it will be behind the new range. I think a crimped connection is OK but I am not an expert. I believe that any connection made with screws (as in terminal blocks) need to be accessible.

Hemsby, as well as asking your sparks you could ask the guys over on AskTheTrades as they are very knowledgeable.

 

[Hemsby]

Last I heard, NO horizontal , or angled cables, chased, or other wise are allowed.
Cable drops have to be straight down.
If you're cables are chased in, you may be able to pull the cable free, from above, if they aren't a tight fit, and you may be going in the right direction for longer cable length.
HTH Rodders

That's not true. Horizontal cables are perfectly permissible. I'm not sure about best practice re effectively 'hiding' the terminal block (I'm guessing it will be behind the new range. I think a crimped connection is OK but I am not an expert. I believe that any connection made with screws (as in terminal blocks) need to be accessible.

Hemsby, as well as asking your sparks you could ask the guys over on AskTheTrades as they are very knowledgeable.

Phew, thanks for the reply .

Sat here 7.30am waiting for the cooker delivery and looking for inspiration #-o before the sparks arrives later.

At least from what you say there is hope of only minor works.

Keith

 

[RogerS]

Keith, absolutely. At the end of the day the only two things that matter are (a) is it safe and (b) have you got the bit of paper signed off. Good luck.

 

[StevieB]

+1 - permissible cable runs are vertical or horizontal, but NOT diagonal. As for jointing cable, a crimped connection is preferable, but personally I would be happy leaving the existing box with a terminal block inside and a blanking plate as a cover - this is then accessible if necessary. The only consideration then is whether the blanking plate (being plastic) is too close to a heat source (range cooker burners in this case) - Sparks will be able to advise but I suspect it will not be allowable. If not, then crimping and burying in the wall might be the simplest solution, followed by relocating the existing cable from the ceiling void as a last (and most disruptive) option.

Steve

 

[Hemsby]

Range duly arrived 8.30 this morning heaved through the door by 2 burly chaps =D> .

Explained the situation to the sparks on the phone and he seems quite happy that he will be able to run the short horizontal cable, to be confirmed when he comes here Wednesday (hammer) . So looks like the takeaways for a couple of days .

Steve,
Point taken about the blanking plate dripping into the frying pan , although there is a tall metal up stand along the back of the range. Think the sensible option if possible is to crimp the connection & make good the old switch box.

If all goes to plan there will be little dust & making good.

Thanks for the advice & suggestions.

Keith

 

[blackrodd]

Hemsby, It looks like I have given you wrong information regarding horizontal cable runs.
Please accept my Profound apologies, especially if it caused you any worry.
I was really convinced that I gave you up to date and correct information.
Regards Rodders

 

[Hemsby]

Hemsby, It looks like I have given you wrong information regarding horizontal cable runs.
Please accept my Profound apologies, especially if it caused you any worry.
I was really convinced that I gave you up to date and correct information.
Regards Rodders

No problem at all

Keith

 

[woodchip]

It's my understanding that both horizontal and vertical cable runs are ok, so long as they run to an outlet. I.e. Above or below a socket, switch, or left or right to a socket or switch. I think a dogleg, I.e. Down the wall and then left to a socket or switch would not be permissible (a blanking plate would be ok though) otherwise how would one know the vertical cable was even there?

 

[Hemsby]

It's my understanding that both horizontal and vertical cable runs are ok, so long as they run to an outlet. I.e. Above or below a socket, switch, or left or right to a socket or switch. I think a dogleg, I.e. Down the wall and then left to a socket or switch would not be permissible (a blanking plate would be ok though) otherwise how would one know the vertical cable was even there?

Good bit of logic there :idea: . Hopefully all will be revealed tomorrow.

 

[John Brown]

I agree about the dogleg. After all, a diagonal run could be thought of as an infinite nuber of doglegs, just as a circle is an infinite number of straight lines.

 

[nanscombe]

Thinking about it, common sense might say that one could expect someone to run a cable in a straight line either left, right, up or down from a socket / switch.

However you couldn't predict the path of diagonals or dog legs.

 

[Deejay]

Morning all

http://niceic.com/en/account/media/17thpg6.pdf

See note 3 on page 1 (the red area on the drawing)

Cheers

Dave

 

[John Brown]

Handy diagrams. Thanks.

 

[Hemsby]

Hi,

All sorted . Electrician came today, no problem running horizontal cable from the old cooker switch to a new one. Only point is that the old cooker point has to be covered with a plate and NOT hidden, #-o so as to indicate that there is a cable there, makes sense. This point was mentioned by Woodchip

Thanks for all the input.

Keith