djlest

Thanks for the replies yes i have no idea what they were thinking during this build, just checking upstairs and no power outlets have ground yet all the downstairs power outlets seems to be earthed?

Yes actually i am going to try and use it and bury the white trunking under render. Much thinner than the yellow conduit. It may well work without the vaf! Thanks

Thanks crossy thanks for your feedback, always appreciated. yes the trunking seems to fit better in the walls although a bit tight.. Im not sure if it meets electrical standards or what the derating would be? Is 2.5mm okay for 24btu aircons or 4mm? i also have 2 hot water heaters to figure.

So, i have acquired an old 30yr house to renovate and it I'm starting with the electrics. So here is the fuse box, not bad quality tbh, seems much better built than some of the newer Schneider units. But no rcb or rcbo so i want to improve it. My question is, can i add some rcd rcbo to the existing box, or shpuld i just bite the bullet and buy a new dual bus consumer unit? Is there a work around? It still has 3 spaces left but maybe not enough for rcd? Im not sure because its an older box and maybe different fittings too etc? Never much experience with consumer units. What are your thoughts to improve on it?

Yes your right the vaf-g looks great, i will have to get a roll. Could come in useful

Yes i was playing with some today, considering using it as it is thinner than yellow conduit, i could possibly bury it in the already chased walls but there wont be much room for air i guess.

Thanks for everyones replies i appreciate it. I think the conduit & single core is to prevent overheating, marginally protect vermin chewing as its still only plastic. these red brick walls really heat up mid afternoon, i can touch the walls on the inside of the house and they are really hot. So yes air space preffered, i just dont see anyway to get that space since i have less than 2cm cleArance. 3x 4mm cables plus plasterboard then render? thats going to be tough to pull off plus not really much space. i wonder if maybe i can use vaf 2x2.5 and seperate earth taped to it. Then feed that down in between the red brick cavity if there is one. one other point to mention, there is no electricity hooked up the meter was removed as previous owners did not pay. so there may well be an inspection to get the new meter.

Thanks yes that could potentially work, i am struggling to find triple core vaf 2.5mm at the moment, its not cheap or easy to find let alone moisture resistant. Im not sure if they would have larger vaf here as it would be really hard to work with. Hmmm food more thought…

Yes i have considered this also but as there are about 10 additional power outlets and its a pretty big area. Plus tiling over it in the kitchen, i would rather bury the cable. in the UK its actually very common to bury VAF above brick and then plaster over then wallpaper. But hot temperature are not usually an issue so im wondering how is it ok there but not here?

Yes thanks for that, i would love to take the easy route but unfortunately this is not an option. The cables need burying !

Help!! im having a bit of a dilema and hoping someone experienced could shed some light and possible solutions? Currently i have chased the walls to lay some extra cables for power outlets, this is an old house with red brick & render. unfortunately they really skimped on the concrete render and i now only have about 2cm between the red brick and top of render. This means i am struggling to hide the yellow conduit as it just cannot go deep enough against the red bricks. I considered chasing deeper into the red brick but they are bloody hard and not very thick, i was trying to avoid ruining the houses structural integrity just for some conduit. I also considered making holes in the red brick and hoping i could feed conduit between what may or may not be double cavity walls, but i imagine they are rough as hell and full of cement, also i dont know how easy feeding the piple will be with ceilings and floor already in. i have been considering scrapping the yellow conduit and using VAF triple core, but i know this is not to thai regulations & moisture, heat, deratings are going to be issues if i take this route. another option i considered was white plastic capping, but even that only leaves about 1/2 cm for render if im lucky. any suggestions please? See pics below for ideas