Hello – it’s me again. Just popped back to see what happened after I left. And as I am now ignoring Bas I will respond to some of the questions raised or inferred.
RF Lighting: Thanks for your post – it was helpful but I thought a bit overkill – see later.
SimonH2: I did feel a bit guilty about leaving without thanking you as you have been most supportive. You did early on try to get me to ignore Bas but he just would me up – jumping to conclusions and getting his inferences all wrong.
Part of the problem (as you pointed out in post eight is that I am the “useless incompetent t**t”. I have designed and built this house so far almost entirely on my own with just the help of a labourer and a few additional hands when concreting the walls. Consequently it’s my baby. I am proud of it and I will be living in it for the rest of my life.
Neither is this house ordinary. It will be close to passive house standard with over 350mm insulation in the base raft, 214mm in the walls and 200mm in the roof – that’s not to mention triple glazing, airtight construction and appropriate levels of electrical generation on site. I’m not useless or incompetent – as for being a t**t others will have to judge.
I fully understand the need for competence and the involvement of a qualified person – but I don’t think I need one yet.
Part of the house consists of a wall of glass comprised of 8 glazed panels 1.5m wide x 4.6m high arranged as facets around a curve. 4 weeks ago just as I was about to place the order for this “curtain wall” the selected supplier (a Danish company) ceased trading. So far I have not been able to find another supplier at a similar price – actually the cost has doubled. Consequently I am now redesigning the curtain wall to reduce the cost of the glazing. This has also meant that part of the roof structure has also needed to be redesigned.
Consequently I have a delay of about 8 weeks to fill doing minor jobs that will not be spoiled because the build is still not watertight.
One of those jobs is installing conduit in the polystyrene walls. I will not be putting cable in at this time – just the conduit. I thought I had in my opening post indicated a number of options that would not phase (is that a pun) the electrician when he is appointed. And in any case plaster board will not be installed until after the electrician has finished first fix. So he will not be unable to see what has been done.
If my guess (educated guess – proposal based on research and knowledge?) of a 25mm conduit with two 4mm² T&E cables is wide of the mark them please tell me. It meets the fill requirements. You will note that I did not mention capacity. I know that the circuit will probably be de-rated so I am not attempting to specify the rating of the MCB – the electrician will decide on that.
I am only seeking some reassurance not a free design of an entire system.
Cost of cable: Yes 4mm² is more expensive than 2.5mm² but I only need half as much in a radial. The cable runs have been decided because of difficult geography and in most cases the return of a ring would be the same as the outgoing cable.
Simon also asked about fixing boxes. The walls consist of 57mm internal insulation, 147mm concrete core, 157mm external insulation and then brick slips or render. Cutting back the 57mm insulation to the concrete gives a clean surface to which a 48mm deep box can be fastened. So the box is only 9 mm below the surface. I suppose I will need box extenders when the plasterboard is screwed to the wall. The chase for the conduit will be less than 30mm deep, and the conduit will be held in place by dabs of expanding foam.
Simon you echoed my description of the walls as a Lego system which sort of indicates a Micky Mouse or Noddy construction method. It’s not. Take a look here…
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=q...6xmuLMAhWhJMAKHU36BgIQsAQIQA&biw=1920&bih=983
http://quadlock.co.uk/
This will be 42nd post for what surely was a simple request clearly and (I think) intelligently presented. Whilst some of the discussion about the technical aspects has been interesting and no doubt informative much of the verbiage has done nothing to instruct. Please stick to the point. I have read a large number of threads on here and it is clear that often the discussion confuses OPs who do not have any real knowledge to start with. Yes, please warn of the dangers and the need for notification and certification, but please don’t further confuse the already confused.
And finally: Come on Bas, stop treating OPs like obliviots even if they are. (Obliviots: a new word for idiots who are oblivious to the fact that they are idiots.)
Kind regards to all.
Jim
The glazing units always seem to be a major headache on the builds I have seen on Grand Designs on TV, they always seem to be coming from Germany and are inevitably late.