On 05/11/2020 14:57, Martin Brown wrote:
On 05/11/2020 14:39, John Rumm wrote:
On 04/11/2020 19:49, Dr S Lartius wrote:

A multi-occupier building has, in a communal service cupboard, a
single standard 13A surface-mounted switched socket into which is
plugged a normal-looking plug.

Entering that plug are two different leads connected to two
different items of low-power fixed communal equipment (it is
not easy to see what each of those actually does - or did.

How should that setup be described, on a scale running from
entirely satisfactory to absolutely illegal?

Somewhere between the two. Its not ideal, but certainly not illegal.

A fire investigator would take a dim view of it though if there was a
fire that appeared to have started inside that cupboard.

Quite possibly, although in reality two low power appliances on one plug
are no more likely to start a fire than the same two appliances on
separate plugs.

Not being able to see it, I can only guess, but assuming the cables
are relatively thin and so can be adequately terminated in the single
set of terminals, and also the cord grip can function on both, then
there is no immediate risk.

Might be worth taking it apart to have a look inside.

There is a possibility if the public has access to it that the fuse has
been wrapped in Kitkat foil because it kept on blowing. I'd certainly
want to see inside it once I was aware that it existed.

Again the OP did say low power... if there are a pair of twin 0.5mm^2
flexes going in, its unlikely they are feeding the curtain heaters over
the door.

The last time I saw something similar was the church's Xmas tree lights
for their somewhat oversized tree. Two sets wired into one plug.

ISTR having done the same here with two sets of lights on one tree.

You could try leaving it unplugged to see what if anything stops
working. It could be for some long since redundant legacy kit.

Yup, its common to find plenty of no longer required kit sat there still
powered.

(I managed to reclaim about 6U of space from a 16U cabinet the other day
just by pulling out a few bits of old kit including a complete PABX, and
a big pile of CAT5 patch leads :-)



--
Cheers,

John.

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