Installing plug socket where boiler controls were

[Pilnet]

Hi all,

Me and my partner moved into our new house last year and one of the first things we needed to do was replace the boiler which was located in the kitchen. This was moved to the airing cupboard upstairs and in the kitchen where the boiler control unit (?) used to be looks to be a space for two plug sockets. I am not very diy savvy but I would like to learn and have a go at installing a single plug socket. My brother in law has already fitted one plug socket (as he only had one) and a plastic casing where the other space is.

As I say, I'm trying to fit the other however, I'm a bit thrown off by all of the wires which are there, it doesn't appear to simply be your standard live, neutral and earth . I imagine these were required when the boiler control unit was there. How would I go about fitting a single plug socket with all these wires?

Sorry for the convuluted post, any and all advice is appreciated. Thanks.

Also I've attatched a few photos of the socket spaces and the wires for into.

 

[Pilnet101]

Bump

 

[Taylortwocities]

So sorry to keep you waiting. But it is a Sunday and most people are in church, or the pub, or both.

I cannot tell what is going on from your pictures.

Would need to see what is connected behind the socket to the right, and also to see how all of the cables on the left hand box are connected - that means without that horrible sticky tape in the way.

From a first glance, there seems to be some horrible wiring there, may be some legacy wiring from when the boiler was moved. I will bet it was done by a plumber and not an electrician?

It looks like there are ring final conductors there - the black and red wires, but some numpty appears to have spliced in some thin weedy cable (the blue/brown wires).

That cable is not thick enough to caary the fault current and - if my suspicions are correct - you could not put a socket there, you need a fused connection unit to protect that little cable.

I also do not understand what the block is for with a red and a black wire connected together.

Need photos with it all revealed, but I rather suspect that you need someone on site to sort it for you.

EDIT: Also, that green/yellow wire that is waving in the wind should be connected to earth!

EDIT2: For goodness sake, trun the power off before putting your fingers anywhere near that.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

TTC - note that what used to be in that back box was a "boiler control unit".

Which could be any number of things, more than one of which could mean that none of the cables there are connected to any electrical circuit.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I am not very diy savvy but I would like to learn .. I'm a bit thrown off by all of the wires which are there, it doesn't appear to simply be your standard live, neutral and earth

• http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=electrical+circuits+101
  
  
• http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=uk+house+wiring+(basics+OR+101)
  
  
• http://kevinboone.net/electricity.html
  
  
• http://web.archive.org/web/20080213151445/http://www.kevinboone.com/domesticinstallations.html
  
  
• [wiki]Electrics%3Abooks[/wiki]
  
  
• [wiki]Electrics%3Aindex[/wiki]

 

[Pilnet101]

Thanks both for your replies, really appreciate the links ban-all-sheds will definitely check them out!

Taylortwocities - you're right, it was done by a plumber! I'll try and get some more pictures soon, on our consumer unit we have a switch to turn off the power to the downstairs sockets, I assume that will suffice before messing around with the wires?? I was a little reluctant to take the sticky tape off as I presumed it was protecting the wires. Also what exactly do you mean when you say the wire should he connected to an earth? Sorry if that sounds stupid!

Thanks again.

 

[Taylortwocities]

on our consumer unit we have a switch to turn off the power to the downstairs sockets, I assume that will suffice before messing around with the wires?

NO!

With 230volts you cannot and must not assume anything!

You are already looking at a large bodge, who can say what others there may be?
How do you know that the feed to that area doesnt come from somewhere else - like the upstairs sockets? I have seen lots like this, and they can bite you, big time.

If you do not have the necessary voltage test equipment, or a multimeter, and know how to carry out safe isolation, then one way is to turn off the big red switch on your consumer unit - marked MAIN SWITCH, but even that is not 100% guaranteed.

But quite honestly, get someone in. There are a number of sins that may be hidden there - or it could be quite simple - its hard to know.

 

[Iggifer]

Just today I was working in a house (maisonette) where everything seemed like it was supplied from our flats meter and DB, killed the power and one light still worked. Tuned out it was fed from the upstairs supply, so different meter, different fuse board and even a different phase.

If we had just turned the power off to the flat and assumed that was dead, we'd be dead. (We weren't working on that exactly, buy you get my point)

 

[Echo the husky]

Just like I assumed today switching off the main switch of a distribution board would cut power to all the MCBs contained within it except a few were fed from another mcb in the adjacent distribution board.