Formaleins Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 Does this make sense or is it a big no no? I want to put some electrical points outside, possible a few sockets or possibly a few lights. I have (as some will know) just installed new 25mm SQ cables from the road to the house which is a bit over 100M. What I wanted to do was keep the new cables intact and not cut and join them, but go and remove the insulation from them at certain points, then clamp on some copper 2.5mm spurs to come down the support poles and fit sockets or lights. If I bare the aluminium cable for maybe 4 or 5 inches without cutting the conductors, then wrapping the copper 2.5mm cable around the core and clamping these together and insulating them with various tapes- dropping them into a safety cut out and then into an socket or light fitting - would this be safe? See my masterpiece sketch..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
147SAG Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 Are you Thai? No no no dont do it. Not safe at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Formaleins Posted January 5, 2020 Author Share Posted January 5, 2020 1 minute ago, 147SAG said: Are you Thai? No no no dont do it. Not safe at all. Why? what is the difference in stripping the insulation as opposed to cutting the cable? No I am not Thai and Thais are persona non grata when it comes to my electrics. I see nothing wrong with the idea as long as it is jointed tightly and is fed to a breaker but I just wanted to ask the question. Your reply answers nothing - Why is it unsafe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
147SAG Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 Run a conduit from house breaker back out to where ever you need it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesofa Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 Spurs like John Wayne? Just to be frivolous, I think it would be more likely Arsenal like John Wayne, owing to that famous line of his, "Stick yer hands up yer bum." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimewoodworker Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 13 minutes ago, Formaleins said: Why? what is the difference in stripping the insulation as opposed to cutting the cable? No I am not Thai and Thais are persona non grata when it comes to my electrics. I see nothing wrong with the idea as long as it is jointed tightly and is fed to a breaker but I just wanted to ask the question. Your reply answers nothing - Why is it unsafe? In principle there is nothing wrong with tapping of the incoming cables. However there are a few different things wrong with your idea. 1) copper cable wrapped round aluminium, No, galvanic corrosion. 2) stripping the insulation without reinstating it perfectly water tight, NO and not possible. 3) no earthing, Hell NO 4) simple breaker, missing RCCB 5) you obviously don’t have proper any way to isolate the supply. So apart from the fact that is completely against PEA/MEA regs bite the bullet and don’t try to outdo the Thai electricians in bad ideas and run a supply from you house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayned Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 Just use a safety pin like the Tais do and wrap it (or not) in with tape, any kind avaiable. Sometime stop and look at the way the decorative lights at Thai celebrations are wired. At least that's the way my local "sparky" does it and he owns one od the decorative light supply and extremely loud music coglomerates in the village. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metropolitian Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 I can understand when the tap will be far away from the home, and just near the incoming cable. You could see it as a 'mini personally owned pea/mea line' with taps, like on camps and resorts, but before my comment continue I would like you to overthink the practice and cost and perhaps better to use a cable from the home to the point (sheltered one) where you need electric instead. And important: When you go for the tap, and consequently breaker(box) and so, the main breakers ought to be smaller. Both at the tap and the house as they are behind one meter. I will split my comment in two parts, the wire side and the breaker side. Wire: Use good taps, one that bites in the cable penetrating the isolation and making contact with sharp teeth and containing a jelly substance for waterproofing. Then you do not need to remove the isolation from the (new) cable. Do search for insulated line taps Breaker: Not use just a single breaker. It's outside, and taping off from a sub-main wire. Then you should consider a small shed, which has a small consumer unit. Put a good long rod in the ground for earthing and from there you have access to electric points. Main breaker, RCBO breakers in there. If you already have an fixed meter, you could use 50amp for the house and 16amp in the shed as main breaker. Or share even, 32amp and 32amp. If you have a temporary meter, wait with all this and just have a 50amp mains in the house. All assuming you have a single phase 15(45) meter. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farmerjo Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 At my last pole next to buildings,the main cable goes to an AVR then spurs off at 5 points after,2 x houses,workshop,outside kitchen/sala and bore pump.Each spur they cut through the insulation,used clamps then wrapped with insulation tape but did notice where they cut the main line in one section to length and it appears they just used copper to join so will ask why they didn't clamp next time i see them.(thanks to the poster pointing that out) Each area has their own protection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post tjo o tjim Posted January 7, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted January 7, 2020 On 1/5/2020 at 7:44 AM, Metropolitian said: Do search for insulated line taps I love Kup-L-Taps, but I’m not sure I would use them in this application. I would worry about the aluminum cables getting a good connection on the teeth. I would just use a split bolt tap with 25mm tap conductors down to the disconnect, and a proper cold-shrink and tape cover. I do agree with the statements that you shouldn’t do it just for one outlet. Put in a panel, proper ground rod and RBCD, and good shade/rain protection. You don’t want to make this a habit. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Formaleins Posted January 13, 2020 Author Share Posted January 13, 2020 On 1/5/2020 at 10:51 PM, sometimewoodworker said: In principle there is nothing wrong with tapping of the incoming cables. However there are a few different things wrong with your idea. 1) copper cable wrapped round aluminium, No, galvanic corrosion. 2) stripping the insulation without reinstating it perfectly water tight, NO and not possible. 3) no earthing, Hell NO 4) simple breaker, missing RCCB 5) you obviously don’t have proper any way to isolate the supply. So apart from the fact that is completely against PEA/MEA regs bite the bullet and don’t try to outdo the Thai electricians in bad ideas and run a supply from you house. Sorry if the post was unclear, but it would be an aluminium spur onto the aluminium cable. The insulation that was stripped would be re covered with 3M self Amalgamating tape then re covered with 3M Insulating tape. Earthing? What should I earth? The live or the neutral? I can only earth anything that is connected to the single phase as PEA do not supply an earth. Breaker - well, I would have a 60A isolation breaker followed by the <deleted>ty Chang 15A MCB or whatever it is, pretty useless in my experience anyway, it will fry you. Isolating the supply is missing off my horrible sketch, but it would be one of those throw breakers that Chang supply, 60 amp jobs that melt at under 30 Amp. Other than that, looks like it meets all the requirements don't you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimewoodworker Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Formaleins said: Sorry if the post was unclear, but it would be an aluminium spur onto the aluminium cable. The insulation that was stripped would be re covered with 3M self Amalgamating tape then re covered with 3M Insulating tape. Earthing? What should I earth? The live or the neutral? I can only earth anything that is connected to the single phase as PEA do not supply an earth. Breaker - well, I would have a 60A isolation breaker followed by the <deleted>ty Chang 15A MCB or whatever it is, pretty useless in my experience anyway, it will fry you. Isolating the supply is missing off my horrible sketch, but it would be one of those throw breakers that Chang supply, 60 amp jobs that melt at under 30 Amp. Other than that, looks like it meets all the requirements don't you think? Use the proper cable clamps as mentioned above that bite into the cable, insulate and seal the joint. While if you use enough of the 3M amalgamating tape you need clamps to hold the cables together (just winding one round the other is a bodge job worthy of any village idiot) and that isn’t going to be easy to insulate. You, as has been mentioned should treat it in the same way as any incoming CU. So RCCB and earthing rod probably a MEN link as well. So no it didn’t meet all the requirements. The RCCB is even more important as it’s an outdoor supply, giving better chances of a shocking experience. Edited January 13, 2020 by sometimewoodworker 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yapos Posted January 14, 2020 Share Posted January 14, 2020 (edited) If you have just installed new 25mm SQ cables from the road to the house which is a bit over 100M. And you want to keep the new cables intact and not cut and join them okay, but go and remove the insulation from them at certain points, then clamp on some copper 2.5mm.it will be okay. Edited January 14, 2020 by yapos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimewoodworker Posted January 14, 2020 Share Posted January 14, 2020 4 hours ago, yapos said: If you have just installed new 25mm SQ cables from the road to the house which is a bit over 100M. And you want to keep the new cables intact and not cut and join them okay, but go and remove the insulation from them at certain points, then clamp on some copper 2.5mm.it will be okay. So you didn’t bother to read the thread before posting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crossy Posted January 14, 2020 Share Posted January 14, 2020 About 2 bucks a pop from aliExpress https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32979269190.html Wear your Marigolds and you can install them live. Finish with amalgamating tape if you wish. No, that bolt is not live ???? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjo o tjim Posted January 15, 2020 Share Posted January 15, 2020 5 hours ago, Crossy said: About 2 bucks a pop from aliExpress https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32979269190.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.png.3b3332cc2256ad0edbc2fe9404feeef0.png)
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now