Discuss Domestic, commercial or Industrial Electricians in the UK Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

Lol..... so you went from not knowing about him in one post to being an expert in the next! Very good :joycat::joycat:

Its not a tattoo down my back! It's just a quote I like when people talk about being specialist, especially in the field of Fire Alarms and IT.
Can we get back on track with this thread?, it seems to have drifted somewhat.
 
don'tmention leisure in south wales, des. as a welsh leisure centre is 3 sheep tied to a lamp post. :eek::eek::eek:
 
don'tmention leisure in south wales, des. as a welsh leisure centre is 3 sheep tied to a lamp post. :eek::eek::eek:
Thought that was a night club Tel, or a dating agency. A thought, how come we can take the rise like this and everyone thinks it a good laugh, and no malice meant but make a joke about : a Pakistani, Indian, Hebrew, you get the picture and you get called a racist?
 
Probably due to the stiff British upper lip;

(with Greek subtitles, to keep up with the multi-cultural theme)

You've taken it off track now Pete :)
 
Don't as a rule do domestics, as I don't want to.
Don't as a rule do shop fitting either.
Prefer industrial.
Doing shop fitting at the mo, boss wants me to snip off the CPC in the cable we're using for an RFC, and instead use a separate 'clean earth' cable that is coloured white (no sleeping).
Though it's an RFC, we can run the earth as a radial, as it's 6mm2 and the RFC conductors are only 2.5mm2.
 
Wouldn't that take the CPC safety from the cable you are running - what are the rules on this @spinlondon? Surely it can be paralleled for safety AND have the function of the clean earth?
 
Not sure what makes an earth clean.
Heard people speak of them, but no one has ever explained it.
Regulations require all conductors of a ring, to be run as a ring.
Regulations allow the colour cream (or off white) to be used as a functional Earth (i.e. something connected to Earth, but is not a protective conductor), protective conductors must be green/yellow.
 
With clean earth use clean earth sockets, the cpc should be connected to all the back boxes to the dirty terminal, this is provided for safety of the installation/containment etc. The separate clean earth connects to the clean earth terminal on the socket which only goes to the sockets earth contacts. Without connecting to any parallel earth paths the clean earth won't have any circulating currents flowing which can cause interference to sensitive equipment. Well that's my understanding anyway.
 
With clean earth use clean earth sockets, the cpc should be connected to all the back boxes to the dirty terminal, this is provided for safety of the installation/containment etc. The separate clean earth connects to the clean earth terminal on the socket which only goes to the sockets earth contacts. Without connecting to any parallel earth paths the clean earth won't have any circulating currents flowing which can cause interference to sensitive equipment. Well that's my understanding anyway.
Which are all connected together when the faceplate is screwed to the back box
How to Create a clean Earth connection for Power Conditioning - http://www.aelgroup.co.uk/faq/faq008.php
 
Last edited:
not sure here, pete, but would the "clean earth" faceplate be configured so that the socket earth terminal/s were not physically connected to the pins?
Well, not sure either Tel, but when I was asked to provide a clean earth, it was usually a requirement to provide a a completely separate earth to the particular D/D or C/U that was supplying that circuit, in other words , say in an office, say on the 4th floor you would need to run your main earth right back to the intake position, where it would then be connected to a black box, never did find out what was inside of this box other than it was some sort of filter. What the OPs Boss is suggesting sounds to me like he is trying to provide a functional earth for some reason, which he hasn't said. That's my two Penny's worth. Edit Addition as an aside the sockets we used on "clean earth installs" were non standard 13 amp switch sockets (MK) witch to all intents and purposes were normal sockets with a non standard earth pin aperture, could be rotated through 90 deg or be an odd shape.
 
Last edited:
A clean earth socket has 2 separate earth terminals one for the earth pins one for the screw lugs. The circuit should have no continuity between the clean earth and safety earth (except when the circuit is connected to the supply. The sockets are available as both standard and non standard 13A configurations. I have a standard one here somewhere but can't find it right now. Cutting the CPCs out is wrong, you'd just as well use them and not bother with the separate earth wires...
F2227982-03.jpg


The g/y link is removed for clean earth, the CPCs go in the terminal with the round earth symbol, the clean earth wires go in the terminal with the half round symbol.

I do most types of installations, domestic, commercial, industrial, installation, repairs and fault finding on installations and huge industrial machines. It's great fun most of the time, I wouldn't want to do domestic all the time, far too boring. You don't get to put in steel conduit, pyro and large armoured cables there. The main area I know nothing at all about and have no experience of is wiring in hazardous areas.
 
Well I never knew that, I think I have heard of them. Has that anything to do with high integrity earth sockets? Fascinating must find out more it might help with noise and various problems encountered in offices and the like. Thanks @freddo for the info. Oh and @Pete999 for the link to more fascinating info.
 
High integrity earthing is different and deals with circuits with likely high protective conductor currents and ensuring they end up to earth so you don't get a tingle when touching exposed conductive parts under a single fault condition.

This can be done is using dual earth terminal sockets, the idea being that if one of the earth terminals is loose there is still a good earth connection in the other terminal. For a radial circuit a separate earth wire has to be run from the last socket back to the distribution board (steel conduit connected to the last socket can be used instead of a separate wire), again both the separate wire and CPC (or both CPCs from a ring final) should be in separate terminals in the DBs earth bar. Any joint boxes used will also need separate terminals for each conductor for the same reason.

Where 2 radial final circuits which have identical circuit protection and live and earth conductor CSAs and fed from the same DB are installed, an earth link can be provided from the last socket on one circuit to the last socket on the other.

There are other methods that can be used but these often require a larger CPC or the use of expensive monitoring equipment.
 
Right people, you have done all the courses, have all the cards required to get you onto sites, including the pseudo qualification "Part P". you're an Electrician.
You start out on your own, but the only work available to you at the moment is house bashing and the odd Domestic job, suddenly an opportunity of a years work refurbishing offices comes your way.
Do you think nah I'm a Domestic Electrician can't be doing that sort of work (forget the Domestic installer at the moment) you're an Electrician be proud of it. Because you are more skilled at Domestic stuff do you go for this or leave to others because you class yourself as a Domestic Electrician? even though your best mate who you trained with is now working on the office refurbishment and loving it, the same could be said about Industrial work.
I guess what I'm saying is what do you class yourself as Domestic, Commercial or Industrial, in fact should you be classifying yourself at all, you have all the relevant tickets,cards qualifications etc.
I was lucky I worked for a contractor that did all 3 of these installations so I had a well rounded Apprenticeship, so come on Guys and Gals you're Electricians don't think that just because you are more experience at 1 or the other that's all you should be doing, easier said than done you may say, but you're ELECTRICIANS be proud of that fact. Sorry for the rant. What do you think?
 

Reply to Domestic, commercial or Industrial Electricians in the UK Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

Similar Threads

I’m nearly a qualified electrician and I’m looking to change from mainly domestic jobs to more of the commercial/ industrial side. I’m just...
Replies
4
Views
1K
I'm unsure if I should be an electrician or maybe another trade is better. I have basically completed my first year of a foundation in...
Replies
9
Views
673
Hi guys, just want to know once you are a qualified electrician with the gold card, can you work for yourself doing domestic work or do you need...
Replies
3
Views
1K
Hi to everyone, this is my first post so if is been already asked/answered please guide me to the relevant discussion/thread. I don't know...
Replies
6
Views
335
NICEIC Certification Scheme Getting accredited to
Looking for some advice regarding joining a CPS. I've been in the electrical industry in various roles for nearly 10 years. I started my...
Replies
15
Views
856

OFFICIAL SPONSORS

Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Electrician Courses Green Electrical Goods PCB Way Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Pushfit Wire Connectors Electric Underfloor Heating Electrician Courses
These Official Forum Sponsors May Provide Discounts to Regular Forum Members - If you would like to sponsor us then CLICK HERE and post a thread with who you are, and we'll send you some stats etc

Electrical Forum

Welcome to the Electrical Forum at ElectriciansForums.net. The friendliest electrical forum online. General electrical questions and answers can be found in the electrical forum.
This website was designed, optimised and is hosted by Untold Media. Operating under the name Untold Media since 2001.
Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock