Wago Lighting Connectors

[scholar]

(if you have room) I think those quickwire connectors are a) news to me, b) another bit of magic to aid connections.
I wonder how / if the regs cover them when not within a 'container'

They don’t need a separate enclosure because the wiring remains double insulated into the Quickwire box - ie there is no exposed single insulated cable (and you need a tool to undo it). I think these are the requirements.

I think these are the neatest solution I have seen - you can pop the Quickwire unit with anll the circuit connections into the ceiling void above the light fitting and just have one cable coming to the fitting itself.

Cheers

 

[pe2dave]

They don’t need a separate enclosure because the wiring remains double insulated into the Quickwire box - ie there is no exposed single insulated cable (and you need a tool to undo it). I think these are the requirements.

I think these are the neatest solution I have seen - you can pop the Quickwire unit with anll the circuit connections into the ceiling void above the light fitting and just have one cable coming to the fitting itself.

Cheers

Good to hear. My issue was a ceiling light screwed into a rafter? 1" hole? V.difficult to get anything back into the void.

 

[pe2dave]

Yuk. I shan't be buying any quickwire. All cookies or p... off?
Dirty and quite possibly wrong.

 

[scholar]

Yuk. I shan't be buying any quickwire. All cookies or p... off?
Dirty and quite possibly wrong.

Interesting point..

I had a look and the site says you need to accept non-necessary cookies to view 3rd party content (all YouTube, I guess) - would that be a requirement of the Quickwire site linking to YouTube? I don’t know.

Until very recently, I have been blasé about accepting all cookies, but mostly now try to limit to necessary ones, except when I’m in a rush…

Cheers

 

[pe2dave]

Until very recently, I have been blasé about accepting all cookies, but mostly now try to limit to necessary ones, except when I’m in a rush…

Cheers

go to individual products and you get the circuit diagram of each connector.
I 'refuse' cookies if at all possible.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I clear everything a couple of times a week so I don't worry too much about cookies.

 

[Spectric]

If rewiring a property then modernise, we have talked about Seans problem on an old build but the solution now is to loop through the switchs, at least on a ground floor where it is more likely to fit decorative lights than just rose & pendants. Hager actually make light switches with the provision for neutral built in White Moulded Sollysta . The problem can be that that ideally you want at least 35mm back boxes and getting these into newer properties can be a right pita.

 

[Old Grizzly]

Used these for the first time a few months back, rewiring the new upstairs lighting circuit. A real time saver. Biggest problem was the loft flooring - 8 x 4 x 3/4 chipboard nailed down with annular nails ... all under 12 inch of fibreglass insulation roll ... messy hard work
Beware of the rookie mistake I made. Always been used to using choc blocks and when I finished up for the day I was very tired and had a bare cable end and without thinking I secured each wire in its own hole in a 3 way wago block, forgetting they were all inter connected ..... that tested the breakers nicely with impressive visual and audio effects and woke me up very quickly .... in a split second I knew exactly what I'd done.
Don't play with wiring when tired !

 

[Spectric]

Sometimes access can be a right pain, in some cases it can be better to remove as little flooring as possible and use other methods. Faced with your 3/4 boards I would have drilled a pilot hole up from the light side and then made an access hole from above using these sort of tools:

or 127mm Solid Board Cutter Kit

and for getting the cables through places you won't beat these https://super-rod.co.uk/#products

 

[seanf]

Today I finished putting up the final three lights we have bought so far and was again very impressed. Not only do the connectors make it faster but they make it 1000 times easier to do the job by yourself. No more wishing for a third hand when balancing the new light and trying to connect up the wires in a choc box, a simple press on the connector, a tug on the wire to ensure it's securely connected and on to the next

Sean

 

[Superduner]

There are several types and configurations of copy Wacos on the market-fairly obviously from China.
They are all in one connectors for 3 core mains cable and, I'm guessing, not legal for use in the UK,
Some YouTubers have tested them at up to 4000 volts before they gave up and melted.

 

[XTiffy]

I became an expert on this subject some years ago having to access and correct ilegal electrical connections of a cowboy electrician (napit registered). This was a new build with all of the chipboard flooring down. Trend supply a Routerbout system which makes quite a large access hole/plate, from memory about 250mm dia (I still have some of the components/cutter). I also used the metal plate system (as per the video put up by spectric), when a smaller access was sufficient. I have used all of the electrical connections that have been mentioned in this post wago which are great and quickwire for a log cabin lighting circuit which was good too.

 

[MikeJhn]

Oh dear Expert please do tell us what was illegal about the electrical connections?

 

[XTiffy]

MikeJhn,
Not sure if I am the expert you are referring to. The bodger believed in using chocolate blocks wrapped in insulation tape and squirelled away beneath floors and in stud partitions. As I am sure you are aware Elec regs. require access for maintenance etc. Wago use the boxes to house the wago connection blocks to satisfy regs. Somewhere I have photos of lots of the problem areas that surfaced. One item was forgetting to run an earth continuity cable so he drilled the outside walls ran it along a few inches deep in the earth (as in Dirt!) then drilled back through the outside wall. When I protested that that cable could easily be cut when digging in the garden he said "that it was OK as it didn't carry any voltage". Then don't get me started on the "builder" using a plumber who caused even more problems.

 

[Spectric]

was illegal about the electrical connections

They probably mean unsafe or in contrevention of the regs, I have seen many bad / dangerous examples over the years and downlighters seemed a bad area where at best they used choc block without any enclosure or at worst just twisted wires and taped.

What is a

One item was forgetting to run an earth continuity cable

You have the CPC's but whats a earth continuity cable?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I wonder how many places in the UK have earths to copper pipework which were perfectly sound at the time but the continuity of which has since been broken by pieces of plastic piping used for additions and repairs?

 

[XTiffy]

Yes, Earth bonding cable for metal pipework etc.! Yes, I do mean illegal in the sense of not corresponding with Regs.

 

[XTiffy]

My point was not about the electrical issues but regarding the original post about access through laid chipboard floors (the electrical issues are which led me to use various methods of gaining access to the floor void) or plasterboard, ceilings/studwork etc.

 

[MikeJhn]

The BS's are a guide, they are not a statutory instrument that must be complied with.

 

[XTiffy]

MikeJhn,
To me your over-legalistic definition is pointless. That is like saying the UK Highway code is not law but you can be punished for not observing it.
The fact is that Building Regs. require you to have all wiring certified as meeting the current version of the Electrical Regs, whether you wish to say that is not a "Statutory instrument" is irelevant.