lighting circuit installation methods, not seen this one...

[timtheenchanter]

Just doing a bit of work in a house yesterday, came across an interesting way of the lighting being fed.
We all know about loop at rose, and loop at switch, but this setup had a bit of both.

Live was looped at the switch, neutral was looped at rose, all wired in singles/s+e recent rewire.

I've not come across this one before, is it common?

 

[Lectrician]

Used to see it quite often in the early 80's for some reason. It is actually not compliant as you are meant to keep the lives and neutrals of a circuit is close proximity.

 

[ericmark]

As Lectrician says the separating of line and neutral causes problems. It was common to use just two strapping wires between two way switches and this was prone to produce mains hum on radios and TV's there is an optimum distance to keep the wires apart with AC circuits. Not such a problem with low frequency but as we go up in frequency cable is designed as 300 ohm, 75 ohm, and 50 ohm impedance to reduce losses.

 

[JohnW2]

It is actually not compliant as you are meant to keep the lives and neutrals of a circuit is close proximity.

It's certainly a good idea to keep Ls and corresponding Ns together, for the reasons Eric states. However, what 'compliance' do you refer to - I don't recall (quite probably missed!) the regs saying anything about this?

Kind Regards, John

 

[stem]

I hope no one at the property (or next door for that matter) uses a hearing aid. When switched to the "T" setting used with telephones and induction loops, they will hear a lovely hum.

When the L & N are together, they cancel each other out.

 

[timtheenchanter]

Cheers,
with regard to the hearing aid, yes probably, those either side of this property are elderly.
It has had a recent rewire like I said, I beleive before the current occupier moved in, so about 12 months ago, I did like the 15 way CU with 7 ways used, bit overkill that.

 

[Sherbertlion]

I did like the 15 way CU with 7 ways used, bit overkill that.

Room for future expansion and often cheaper than a smaller board if the 15 way is on offer!

 

[securespark]

Yeah, don't knock it!