On 2004-09-13, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

One question tho - why oh why oh why are the circut joint boxes such a
pain in the arse to work with? What's wrong with a "busbar" type join
box? Surely these things must exist?

Like a standard ceiling rose? Except for the earth of course which is a
PITA on those.

I'd guess it's space that is a problem in a round box.

You can get some makes that use a busbar - usually 30 amp types. TLC sell
them. Only three outlets per busbar, though.

Yeah that's the sort of thing. Indeed it is space that's a problem.
Plus - in order to get all the wires in the connector and have them
safely and reliably connected - they need to be paired up - meaning
that you have to either have

a) very long runs round the box
or
b) two wires per entry

Just gets too damn fiddly and stuff. Nothing that you can't do with
long nose pliers etc - but it would have taken about 1/3 the time if I
had say a 4 terminals per "circuit" busbar type arrangement - could
have screwed it all into and bob's youd uncle etc. Much more securely
wired of course. Not that the effort that I've made isn't securely
done - in fact I'm paranoid etc - but it would have been easier for me
to feel happy iyswim.

Cheers
Dan.