On Saturday 12 January 2013 18:24 wrote in
alt.home.repair:

Until very recently ALL of the above were forbifdden by american and
canadian code.
In some areas the "vampire" clips formerly allowed in mobile homes are
now also allowed in permanent residential installations - although I
would NEVER use them - even in a trailer.

Like these:

http://www.wppltd.demon.co.uk/WPP/Co.../Scotchlok.jpg

?

If so - oh dear... I have used them in a car, in the old days. But they
have no place in house wiring.

Unlike UK "ring circuits" there is no "feeder" per se. All circuits
have "home runs" to the service panel, where they are protected by a
breaker (or in some cases , still) a fuse.

Possible slight confusion?

Ring circuits are for sockets and make a peculiar (but valid if conditions
are met) claim that you can use nominal 20A rated cable for a 32A protected
circuit based on there being 2 paths back to the fuse box.

Lighting, in the UK, has always bee "tree wired" - ie one or two cables leav
ethe fuse/breaker and then branch all around the place until every
subcircuit on a lighting circuit has been fed.

I'm curious - do you really bring 5-15 cables back to the fusebox for a
single lighting circuit if you have 5-15 switched sets of lights? Or do you
put a lot less lights on a single breaker?

Me: I'm running with 2 circuits (pretty normal for a UK house), both 10A
(regs permit 6A, 10A and 16A - 6A is most common, and 16A is usually for
commercial premises).


Does the fan require a ground/earth and is there one present in the
lighting circuit?

In all recent (last 40 years or so) north american installations the
ground is there and required.

Curiously, if you go back to even the 1980's in England, (change was between
the 15th to 16th Editions of the regs IIRC) not every point on a lighting
circuit needed an earth provided *unless* the fitted was Class I (ie
earthed). This of course was a bugger if a double insulated fitting was
swapped out and a Class I installed.


================


Also - do local regulations permit fans running from lighting circuits?
How many amps does the fan take? It's probably OK, but the question needs
asking.
The fan draws less than most lights - and in all North American
codes lighting and ancilliary loads can be shared on the same circuit.

OK - thanks for that. Pretty much the same then.

--
Tim Watts Personal Blog: http://www.dionic.net/tim/

"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."