On 11/05/18 00:29, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Tim Watts wrote:
Adam may shed some light on this, but the only time I can think you'd
want to separate conductors in a device is for locating a suspected
fault. There's no routine testing I can think of that would need that,
*except* if you needed to isolate a branch because it had a sensitive
device on the end. If the device *is* the sensitive part, you might take
it off and stick a terminal block on the end of the wires.

You don't twist the bare line or neutral together along their length
inside a box, so why do it with the earth?


I wouldn't either, but I might twist the ends if the screw was being
unreliable holding onto 1 of 2 or 3 conductors (I've had that happen).

I was primarily challenging the notion that "twisting makes it difficult
to test" when, at least with my limited knowledge of testing, you'd
generally not unwire the backs of devices, only the final cable(s) into
the CU.

If you did do a lot of unwiring, it would compromise the testing anyway,
as you'd be disturbing stuff needlessly in the name of making it better,
when that would generally have the opposite effect.

The best testing would undo nothing, but the rise of electronic elements
and the fact you have to isolate the circuit means a small amount is
unavoidable.