Hi folks. I am installing an outside power supply to my little barn. Because I am not qualiied as an Electrician, I have to have the wiring inspected, by the regulating authority, to be issued with a certificate of compliance. Without the cert., I am not permitted to sell the property. EVER! So. It has to be spot on! Now: The 2.5mm sq. armoured cable is colour coded: Brown - Black - Grey. I assume that Brown is live! But. Which colour must I use for Earth? I shall, of course, be sheathing the earth wire with Green/Yellow sleeving. As Black was once Neutral, should Grey be Earth? Or. Does it matter? Can I just identify Neutral and Earth using, Blue - Green/Yellow, insulating tape? Also: At the feed point in the machinery room, I have followed convention and brought a non-fused supply into an MK Metalclad Plus JB, and attached the armoured cable gland and earthing therein. Do I also have to terminate the cable in the same way in the barn? I was going to attach the armoured cable straight into the IP65 Consumer Unit, which is plastic. I don't think that IP65 or IP56 metal JBs are available. Or, can one get ingress seals to make an MK Metalclad Plus boxes up to IP65 or IP56? Thanks in advance, Dave.
The armour wires are the earth, no? Those are the new three-phase colours, so it looks like you may not have quite the right cable for single phase. Dunno, there's a few sparkies on here who'll no doubt help.
Finally a question not about cars so i will be the one in the "advice" seat for once lol Brown= Live Grey has to be sleeved/taped as Blue and is now neutral Black had to be sleeved/taped green/yellow and is earth This is trade norm so best keep it the same Im a bit confused about what you mean by "non-fused supply into an MK Metalclad Plus JB" isnt this just a joint box? are you not feeding it directly off of a fuse board? The gland should come with a banjo, which is a flat brass thigy with a big 20mm hole and a smaller 6mm hole, this goes between the gland and the box and should then have a hole drilled through the 6mm hole in the bajo to allow a 6 mm bolt to be bolted through the banjo and box, and then a "fly lead" with a 6mm lug needs to be taken off of this bolt (inside the box) and earthed to the same place as the main earth core. This ensures that the armour of the cable is earthed, there fore meaning that you can use plastic at both ends if you prefer as the fly lead from the banjo at either end is earthing the cable sheath to the earth you will have in the terminal inside each box. HTH?!
Ta so much madasafish100. A grand reply so! When I say non-fused supply. I mean that I am taking the supply from the busbars in one of the main consumer units. Not through an MCB in there. The RCD and MCBs in the remote Waterproof Consumer unit will do the job! ps. Are fish mad, or just angry?
I'm not sure that's allowed. IIRC all your cables (after the consumer unit) should be protected by a fuse (over current device).
The man is right unfortunately, you will have to feed it off of a 16A MCB from the consumer unit. If your intending on running more than 16A u will need to go for bigger cable to suit. How long is the run of cable? As if it is a long cable run you may even have to use a 10A main MCB, as the cable de rates in current carrying capacity and you may get volt drop if its a really long run. "ps. Are fish mad, or just angry?" not sure really
OK. I will run it off an MCB. The primary 2.5mm cable is 40m. Is this OK for 16 amp? Then, there will be two separate 10m long secondary 1.5mm armoured cables to the Polytunnel and the Shed!
yea 16A should be ok. the 2 1.5mm feeds will need to be fed of 6A MCB's. im off out now so will pick up any more Q's if u got them in the morn
SWA not quite as simple as T+E, i.e normally much higher current capacity. Your short run in 1.5 may well be able to be fused at 20a, depending on where the cable is run, if its xlpe The 2.5 certainly ok for 20a, and maybe 25a if your brand of consumer unit makes one. The armour doesn't have to be earthed at both ends if its 3 core cable
Madfish above has given u some great pointers, but here are a few extras that might help. -Keep a bit of slack hidden up in the roof space of the barn, as you'll curse yourself if the cable drops short, once you've made the gland off. -Put the shroud and first brass ring on the cable before you start cutting and pull them up out of the way. It's a big self kicking moment when you've made off a perfect gland and find the shroud in your pocket not on the cable. -Once you've found your right length cut a ring around the plastic and cut a slit all the way down to the end. Leave the plastic on for now. -Now pull the sheath down about 3/4 inch and tape it back up tightly at the gland area. You do this to give you a straight scoring guide for the next stage. -Run a hacksaw carefully around the armour strands so they're about 1/2 way through. Keep thumbs out of way as it will try and jump at you. -Now pull off the sheath and bend the strands so they break off cleanly. If any are bent over the gland will be a pig to fit. Any that look as if they won't break cleanly cut with a set of cutters instead of bending them over. - Now open up the strands by rotating the inner (white) core to spread them a bit. - Tighten up the other side of the gland and slip on the banjo. - Now offer up the 2/3 complete gland to the box to see where u want to cut the white sheathing. Very carefully ring around this again and leave it on as per above. - Drop the cable in the box, white sheathing left on so conductors haven't snagged on a stray burr, pull white bit off and tighten up the last (usually silver) nut. - A true glanding pervert would now apply some self amalgamating tape to the area where the white sleeve and the cores poke through.
Good post sparky, I'd do this: all in one go with the hacksaw. It may be worth someone clarifying the banjo earth bonding specs ( 4 or 6mm2...I can't remember), as that's the bit the inspector will easilly see and doesn't seem to be mentioned yet.
Ta so, Sparky and Mark. I have already made the first gland connection, this afternoon. I don't use tape around a circular item, to guide the hacksaw, I use a VW squeezable pipe clip! I used 4 sq.mm Earth bonding. I have not found any nice bolts and nuts for the banjo yet though! Should these be brass? I have some SS dome heads somewhere! Will photo. tomorrow!
A photo doesn't mean much, but if you said the yellow ring crimp on the end of the 4mm cable was strong enough to hold your weight, then it would sound pretty inspector proof. Cheap crimps and crimping tools = SS is OK.
Quite true Brian. If you saw the crap, that so called electricians, install in new builds, you would know that they were not inspected. I wondered about dropping a few Euro, to a tame electrician, to sign it off, as if he had installed it!
Feck Mark. I copied what the Irish electrician did, when he installed an armoured cable, to the caravan, back in 2000. I was not here then, mrs daved was on her own, 'till I was fit enough to come over. I disconnected the caravan supply, to use the 1.5mm cable, for the extensions from the barn. This guy had used a gland without a stuffing gland on the end. He did not catch the armour in the gland. The box and circuit breakers etc. is falling off the wall. I will photograph it all tomorrow so's we can all have a good laugh! I do have some good crimp connectors and a good crimping tool. I know that I am a bit slow at my age, but, I never thought to use them!
Nothing wrong with that. Mostly people get them to check the work and then make the final connection to the supply.
