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| UK electrical wiring |
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| coppice:
--- Quote from: IanB on February 14, 2021, 05:35:23 pm --- --- Quote from: coppice on February 14, 2021, 05:03:22 pm ---No it wouldn't. By the time the place needs rewiring usage patterns have changed, new bits and pieces altered from the original layout of the wiring, and the amount you can simply pull through the original conduits is limited. Conduit always sounds so flexible, but seldom really works out. --- End quote --- For instance, I grew up in a house that was built around 1960, and the builders only included one socket in each bedroom. I'm not sure how they ever thought that would be enough. --- End quote --- That was normal in 1960, and was considered perfectly adequate. By the mid 70s it was looking a bit weak, although even then if you suggested putting in lots of sockets many people complained that they didn't want their walls covered in sockets. The real problem with the one socket tended to be that they put it in the least useful spot in the room. :) |
| james_s:
--- Quote from: IanB on February 14, 2021, 05:35:23 pm --- --- Quote from: coppice on February 14, 2021, 05:03:22 pm ---No it wouldn't. By the time the place needs rewiring usage patterns have changed, new bits and pieces altered from the original layout of the wiring, and the amount you can simply pull through the original conduits is limited. Conduit always sounds so flexible, but seldom really works out. --- End quote --- For instance, I grew up in a house that was built around 1960, and the builders only included one socket in each bedroom. I'm not sure how they ever thought that would be enough. --- End quote --- My aunt & uncle live in a house built in 1922 and originally when built there was only one duplex receptacle in many of the rooms, I think two in a couple of the larger rooms and this is a fancy enough place to have what was originally a maid's quarters in the basement. More were added sometime in the 1950s judging by the wire used, and then they added more in the 80s and 90s. Used to be people didn't have much that needed to be plugged in. A family might have a radio, a vacuum cleaner, a clothes iron, maybe a few lamps. For whatever reason ceiling lights went out of fashion in 1950s-60s America and lamps became very popular and people also started owning a lot more electrical gadgets in the post-WWII boom years. I find there are never enough receptacles even in modern houses and there is never one quite where you need one. I would love to have them every 4' on every wall in the house, and a double gang box with a pair of duplex receptacles is preferable to a single one just about anywhere, you can never have too many places to plug something in. At this point I have 6-way adapters and power strips all over the house, the total load is not high but there are a lot of things plugged in. |
| Cerebus:
--- Quote from: james_s on February 14, 2021, 12:36:06 am ---You certainly wouldn't see anything like that out here in earthquake territory. Looks like it would pose a far greater resistance to fire than the wood houses we have though. Seems like a really easy way to wire a home like that would be to run conduit from box to box and plaster over that. --- End quote --- That's exactly what is done for a plastered brick wall, except it's not conduit per se. You chase out a channel with one of these: Then you put "twin and earth": aka '6242Y' into the channel, cover it with PVC capping: nailing the edges into the wall, and finally plaster over the top. The OP ought to acquaint himself with the Building Regulations part 'P' before embarking on any DIY re-wiring and should be aware that most work of any significance will have to be inspected by either a 'registered competent person' or a building control officer. A note for the non-brits reading this: There is not a statutory code for electrical wiring in the UK in the same sense there is in other places. There is the IET wiring regulations, which are misleadingly named, they are not government regulations, merely guidelines issued by the IET. The actual government regulations are quite short and sweet, and basically boil down to electrical installations must be safe and not present a risk of fire or electrical shock. Following the IET guidelines is generally regarded by the various bits of government as an indication that the real regulations have been met, but it does not, and never has, definitively indicated that an installation meets the statutory standards - it is quite possible to 'do it the way the book says' and produce an unsafe installation in some circumstances. An indication of this is the boilerplate wording from the Health and Safety Executive that you'll find prefixing every issue of the IET Wiring 'Regulations' in recent years, vis: --- Quote from: Note by the Health and Safety Executive ---Installations which conform to the standards laid down in [this standard] are regarded by HSE as likely to achieve conformity with the relevant parts of [the legislation]. --- End quote --- |
| Majorbob:
In this greatly informative discussion I have started looking into Part P, I spend every day modifying wiring in machines where "along that random bit of framework is fine, just cable tie a bit of conduit until you have time to fix it properly" is an unfortunately common occurrence (and often takes a long time until it is fixed properly). I have had some exposure to the 17th (and 18th) editions but the course is for the facilities team, which isn't me. I have now given up on the idea of running behind skirtings, as laying metal conduit or running SWA just isn't really going to be feasible... especially once it's run up to sockets... I don't need my house looking like a machine cell at work! Thankyou all for good discussion and aiding my understanding, planning for the rewire can now continue! |
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