MikeSharp01

Perhaps it is an example of recursion - for recursion see recursion...

Sorry Dave, I was not clear, there are two SWA cables leaving the panel from the two switch units (one feeds the garden room and one feeds the main house) and another from the CU - which just feeds a 16A commando at the moment but will eventually feed the garden lights and the car charge point.

Yes - I thought as much. I have another question or two for you Dave, sorry. In this topic you posted a picture of your meter box and you have same switches that I have but I notice you have put the incoming at the top although on mine the Lin Nin are at the bottom of the switch. I understand that the electrons won't mind but is it common to use the switch in reverse direction to the labelling or is your switch labelled the other way up. If I reverse the ones I have the whole fuse assembly would be live even if the switch was off I think and there is an internal cover for the lower terminals (not in place in my photo above) to protect you if you open it live. I could simplify my cabling if I could switch the direction of one of the two switches but I guess good practice would be to have them both the same anyway. Also I took a length of the outgoing SWA apart today to see how I would run that around the panel to the top of the switches (16mm 3 core - inc Earth) I noticed that the cores are not double insulated once you split them into three so I was wondering how I handle it up to the switches given that I had in mind splitting out the earth just above the outgoing gland. @JSHarris has what looks like a solution in his meter box picture below yours in the above topic. Did you sheeth the cores Jeremy?

I am sure I saw copper to plastic mentioned in the John Guest patent literature somewhere many years ago. I used plastic to copper several times for the build back at millstone manor, 10 years not a drip anywhere - well when I left this morning that is.

I am sure I read somewhere what a whacker will compact in type 1 depth, much less than 250mm, you probably need a roller for that. Here is a link http://www.broxbourneplant.co.uk/html/wacker_plates.html tells you depends on soil type but 300mm for the bigger one.

ooher .... And there is me rewiring mine today. I will get the color codes right though. I notice the earth there and was reading yesterday about the new earthing arrangements coming in the 18th Edition - looks like we might all need our own earth stake!

I don't have a label printer but I could get one, any recommendations?

Thanks Jeremy & Dave I will get the two Henly blocks tomorrow and rewire it without the exposed colours and use shrink wrap colour marking instead.

I have this - and was today reading the briefing on the changes for the upcoming edition next year. I was referring to section 412 (412.1.2) in doing the internal wiring but as you need to strip the outer double insulation off cables going into socket terminal etc I thought the same would apply here - there is no corresponding part 7 so no derogation. However I was not sure so I hence my question, I was happy to adjust it all but will now rewire it anyway as two henry blocks will not allow me to reuse the tails I have. I guess its the openness of the panel that makes the difference which I think means that inside the CU I do not have to take the Double insulation right up to the terminal and as long as it is double insulated through the switch cover boundaries it can be single insulated for the few mm up to the terminal. I have the shrink wrap for other bits of the installation and will use it here as well. I will do some sample connections and get chapter and verse before I start though. The installation will be checked by my brother in law who will make all the final connections, check my work, and certify the installation.

Hmmmm.... If they are dangerous why are they for sale? The single ones are the same material. What would the failure mode be, the whole internal barrier, cracks and falls away allowing the two blocks to come into contact? I guess I could change over to the single ones. I think I will use flexible conduit as the two units are back to back through a 100mm block wall.

I built the distribution panel today, see below. The other cables are external and while the two leaving for the garden room and house are SWA there are two 25mm tails coming in the from meter box via the main isolator in the meter box, directly behind this panel, and I am wondering of I need to mechanically protect them in trunking or some such? Also I have stripped back the tails I have used in this panel far enough to ensure you can see the cable colours outside the housings of the switches etc - it feels like the right way to do but is this the right way to do it?

Lucky blighter(s) - always wanted hydro power ever since I saw the tiny turbine at Rudyard Kipling's house (Batemans) as a child. Best I could arrange would be pumped storage I suppose.

Yep, then people standing at the door won't be looking at your stairs but down through the house to Garden Vista. Although moving the stairs has improved things for the old arrangement but does impact the house all the way up.

The only a couple things that spring to mind are: Move front door to other side so you can see all the way through the building - give an impression of depth. Nice car in garage. Look at how beds will be organised in the bedrooms, use a king size as a starting point and see how it could be laid out, reducing to single trying all sizes in between, it will help you optimise the storage now and power points later.

Great post @caliwag I wonder how we can arrange a larder - of which I am a great fan, in a passive house environment? We have provisioned the space in the new build but I have no ideas yet on how to ventilate / insulate it - but love the idea of marble shelving.

+1 ours worked with us and the Architect to get things the way we wanted.

Thanks @JSHarrisThose are the very ones I have - I will get the piranhas and have a play.

All the ins and outs of the main cabinet will be glands only the internal wiring into the the little CU at the top of the cabinet will have grommets, so lets hope we can keep the creepy crawlies out of the main cabinet and then they will struggle to materialise in the internal CU.

Thanks @ProDave for that. The Commando is not designed as a site socket - just a socket I can use in the garden / drive, I can make it TT though. Is the image below what you expect to see for the TT scheme via the Commando Socket? I think we will have a PME supply although its the old supply just moved to the cabinet next door and the earth rod at the bottom of the power pole is less than 1m from the cabinets, so will have to drive in the earth rod a good distance away to meet the depth / distance rule. I have included the gland / sheathing earths for the main outputs as well.

I am just about to wire the distribution box, see pic below and drawing below, This distributes the incoming power from the meter panel next to it out to the garden room 1x80A fused unit (upper), the main house - 1x80A fused unit and a local commando socket (16A) and the garden lighting (1x small CU 16A / 6A breakers). I have three things I am not sure of so any ideas greatly appreciated; Should I use ferrules on the ends of all the 10 / 16 and 25mm2 tails across the cabinet (they are already on the internal wiring in the small CU). I would have though I would but installations I have seen don't always use them and the regs look agnostic (526.9.1 in 17th Ed)! To get the cables in and out of the CU I propose to just use simple grommets around the holes, I don't think I need to seal them although I could. Do I need to earth the earth connections, and run the earths through, on the Switch Fuse units as the earth common block will be used to terminate the earths from the cables these supply, it seems daft to introduce two additional points of failure by connecting the outgoing cable earths via the switch fuse units. The cables will all be held down on the board by cable ties through table tie plugs in the board. All and any thoughts appreciated.

Just did it, its PEDIT - Close.

Just click on the line it will show the nodes and then you can investigate each one, if you move a node and one line stays still there is your gap but IIRC you can close a shape with straight lines or curves and set a gap tolerance to close.

Looks like you are going to really poop his party on this one if you can find the sweet spot.

+1 For Henry. We have a VAX for wet dry work and a Henry for everyday it's very good at least as good as the VAX while the cable wind and two speed control make it excellent. Only brought it to clean our sons uni room when he moved out and we now love it.

I got a rather good O level with SMP, and I think I had a crush on the teacher - her name was miss slowly, wonder where she is now.