Period Sockets and switches

[FamilyWiggs]

Depends on your wall colour Moo.

Mine are pale cream/straw and the white inserts just disappear.

 

[Zebra]

the sockets will sit quite close to the floor.

If you're getting building regs to sign the work off I don't think you can do this any more Rob - they have to be a certain height off the floor, I'm sure Zebra can tell you.

I quite like "metal clad" sockets (as you pictured) in certain places - they certainly suit conversions of ex-industrial buildings, when used with metal conduit. I've put them in my garage, for purely utilitarian reasons of course, with plastic conduit.

Ah, it depends. If you're totally refurbishing the whole house or doing a new build, then yes, socket outlets and switches are supposed to be in a zone between 400mm and 1200mm height, which is high for sockets and low for switches. If you are rewiring an existing property and not doing a total refurb, then you are allowed to have them no worse in terms of height than they were previously. This must be to allow a rewire to use the old backboxes if necessary, and may be a loophole you can use to your advantage. If you are adding new sockets to an existing installation then they must also be no worse than the existing in terms of compliance.

 

[Feltwell]

That's useful to know Zebra. I know my parents had to have sockets and switches in the compliant zones on their new house extension, but I presume that any extension is classed as new build.

Mind you, the Building regs checks on what you do to yourown place aren't exactly what you'd call stringent. I wired up my garage myself, then got an electrician in to do the connection to the house and test and sign off the installation. The electrician then sent me a small sheath of paperwork that details exactly what was done, all the test results etc. The NICEIC then send you a certificate that has practically no detail on it - it just says that one or more new circuits were installed at this address, no detail of where they are or what they do.

All the Building Inspector wanted was a copy of this certificate to put on file. It could have been for any work on the house quite frankly.

 

[robgil]

Thanks guys , some very useful info there. Are you a sparky then Zebra?

 

[skier-hughes]

Depends on your wall colour Moo.

Mine are pale cream/straw and the white inserts just disappear.

Mine are black on a straw background and have disappeared!

 

[Penners]

That's unacceptable - they're clearly faulty.

I should send them back to the supplier (if you can ever find them).

 

[Zebra]

I know my parents had to have sockets and switches in the compliant zones on their new house extension, but I presume that any extension is classed as new build.

That's interesting. My belief was that if it was an extension to an existing house, then the heights had to be no worse than in the existing house - I've done that in the past and it's not been questioned by Building Control, but maybe your parents Building Control officer made a point of it.

The electrician then sent me a small sheath of paperwork that details exactly what was done, all the test results etc. The NICEIC then send you a certificate that has practically no detail on it - it just says that one or more new circuits were installed at this address, no detail of where they are or what they do. All the Building Inspector wanted was a copy of this certificate to put on file. It could have been for any work on the house quite frankly.

Yes, that's how the self-certification scheme works. The electrician doesn't have to send to the scheme provider (NICEIC, Elecsa, Napit etc) any more information than that, simply that they've installed one or more new circuits, circuit alteration, or whatever it is. The electrician has to give a certificate to the customer and keep a copy themselves, neither Building control nor the scheme provider keep records to any level of detail.

Thanks guys , some very useful info there. Are you a sparky then Zebra?

Yes. Oh look what I've started now!

 

[Penners]

The electrician then sent me a small sheath of paperwork

I suppose the idea was to stop the paperwork from breeding.

 

[Keithj]

It was a total waste of money buying Dr Who's old tardis. I got back to 1491 but none of the shops had any decent electrical goods. Nobody could answer my questions about Part P.

I did find some lovely sconces that I could have adapted, only 5 groats each, but the merchant wouldn't take Amex and I had no fiddling small change.

Bach to best MK brass fittings, then.

 

[Penners]

Bach to best MK brass fittings

I make that a time-span of about 262 years (unless MK made candles in Bach's time).

 

[MdB]

5 groats each

5 groats = 1s/8d = 8p. (not taking inflation into account)
(equivalent to £566 now taking average earnings into account)

 

[AMc]

It was a total waste of money buying Dr Who's old tardis. I got back to 1491 but none of the shops had any decent electrical goods. Nobody could answer my questions about Part P.

You've not really thought this through have you? Simply drive your TARDIS forward to 2013 and have a look what you've fitted.

 

[Penners]

Sorry AMc, you're not getting away with a temporal paradox like that.

If he doesn't know what to fit, how can he travel into the future and see what he's fitted? And if he finds out what to fit and fits it, then he doesn't need to travel into the future to see what he's fitted.

I feel a bit dizzy now...

 

[Flyfisher]

No need for time machines. In a parallel universe, electricity generation would have been invented in Tudor times and there would be an abundance of authentic period sockets and switches to choose from. :wink:

 

[LadyArowana]

It was a total waste of money buying Dr Who's old tardis. I got back to 1491 but none of the shops had any decent electrical goods. Nobody could answer my questions about Part P.

You've not really thought this through have you? Simply drive your TARDIS forward to 2013 and have a look what you've fitted.

Won't work, you will just see yourself sitting at the table having a cup of tea and a kit kat and still assessing the situation.

 

[Penners]

Aha - not all bad then!

 

[Keithj]

Bach had the right idea. While I was playing the toccata and fugue in D minor (BWV565) the answer came to me.

Sadly, the boss doesn't want organ stops on the wall to control the lights, so it's back to the tardis I go...

 

[AMc]

If someone in the future invents a time machine we'd have seen it by now ... unless that phone box myth is a double bluff.

We looked at a fabulous 19thC house in Dalston which was occupied by a bunch of vintage hippies.
In addition to having enough room in the front room for a proper grand piano and no steps from the 1st floor kitchen door into the garden it had Marmite jars cunningly fashioned into door knobs.
Unfortunately we could afford the house or the work it really needed. It was bought by a developer who fitted repulsive plastic windows and turned it into pocket sized flats

[edited to suit typo pedantry]

 

[Penners]

I was bought by a developer

Oh no! :shock:

Everybody - let's have a whip-round and buy AMc back before he's turned into a housing estate.

 

[MdB]

Everybody - let's have a whip-round and buy AMc back before he's turned into a housing estate.

Too late!

I was bought by a developer who fitted repulsive plastic windows