My present electric shower is presently powered by a 45 A Fused Connection Unit
near to the CU and then has a pullcord switch mounted near the shower . As part
of my bathroom renovation I am putting in 10mm cable and will either replace the
existing 6mm or juust leave it in place for future use to avoid any upheaval
,probably the former .
What I was wondering ( but not necessarily adopting) was whether the pullcord
switch is really necessary .Could the shower not be operated by using the switch
on the FCU when the shower was to be used ?....just a thought .

Stuart

Stuart wrote:
My present electric shower is presently powered by a 45 A Fused Connection Unit
near to the CU and then has a pullcord switch mounted near the shower . As part
of my bathroom renovation I am putting in 10mm cable and will either replace the
existing 6mm or juust leave it in place for future use to avoid any upheaval
,probably the former .
What I was wondering ( but not necessarily adopting) was whether the pullcord
switch is really necessary .Could the shower not be operated by using the switch
on the FCU when the shower was to be used ?....just a thought .

Stuart

Dunno Stuart, but if I remember correctly the pull switch has to have a
mechanical
indicator whether it is ON or OFF, so in my books that means it is
essential as
far as the regulations are concerned.

Mungo

On 14 Apr 2006 08:26:19 -0700, "Mungo" wrote:


Stuart wrote:
My present electric shower is presently powered by a 45 A Fused Connection Unit
near to the CU and then has a pullcord switch mounted near the shower . As part
of my bathroom renovation I am putting in 10mm cable and will either replace the
existing 6mm or juust leave it in place for future use to avoid any upheaval
,probably the former .
What I was wondering ( but not necessarily adopting) was whether the pullcord
switch is really necessary .Could the shower not be operated by using the switch
on the FCU when the shower was to be used ?....just a thought .

Stuart

Dunno Stuart, but if I remember correctly the pull switch has to have a
mechanical
indicator whether it is ON or OFF, so in my books that means it is
essential as
far as the regulations are concerned.

Mungo

Thx Mungo .What I was thinking of was you can have a wall switch outside the
bathroom ...which presumably has ON/OFF indications.... but so does my FCU
switch .I can understand the neeed for an inbetween switch when the supply comes
direct from the CU as there would be no such switch with those indications .

Stuart

Stuart wrote:

My present electric shower is presently powered by a 45 A Fused Connection Unit
near to the CU and then has a pullcord switch mounted near the shower . As part
of my bathroom renovation I am putting in 10mm cable and will either replace the
existing 6mm or juust leave it in place for future use to avoid any upheaval
,probably the former .
What I was wondering ( but not necessarily adopting) was whether the pullcord
switch is really necessary .Could the shower not be operated by using the switch
on the FCU when the shower was to be used ?....just a thought .

You need an isolator between the supply and your shower unit. This is
a very specific sort of switch. Regulation 537-02-02 has the details
but in this case you need a suitably rated switch that breaks both the
Live and Neutral conductors and which has a mechanical indicator
showing when an appropriate contact gap has been achieved.

The switch on your FCU might be such an isolator - the pull switch
will almost certainly be one. It's also considered good practice to
put the isolator where it can be supervised by anybody working on the
circuit in order to guard against the equipment being switched on
while it is being worked on.

The use of a MCB in the consumer unit as a means of switching
equipment on and off is discouraged.

John
--
John White,
Electrical Contractor

On Fri, 14 Apr 2006 20:38:47 +0100, John White
wrote:

Stuart wrote:

My present electric shower is presently powered by a 45 A Fused Connection Unit
near to the CU and then has a pullcord switch mounted near the shower . As part
of my bathroom renovation I am putting in 10mm cable and will either replace the
existing 6mm or juust leave it in place for future use to avoid any upheaval
,probably the former .
What I was wondering ( but not necessarily adopting) was whether the pullcord
switch is really necessary .Could the shower not be operated by using the switch
on the FCU when the shower was to be used ?....just a thought .

You need an isolator between the supply and your shower unit. This is
a very specific sort of switch. Regulation 537-02-02 has the details
but in this case you need a suitably rated switch that breaks both the
Live and Neutral conductors and which has a mechanical indicator
showing when an appropriate contact gap has been achieved.

The switch on your FCU might be such an isolator - the pull switch
will almost certainly be one. It's also considered good practice to
put the isolator where it can be supervised by anybody working on the
circuit in order to guard against the equipment being switched on
while it is being worked on.

The use of a MCB in the consumer unit as a means of switching
equipment on and off is discouraged.

John

I've just realised that I misled you by saying FCU when I mean a Wylex type 104
45 A Switchfuse like this one only it is lower rated .I'm not sure that it is DP
as I can't see that either on the unit or in any description .It had the
original cartridge fuse replaced by an MCB

http://www.ryness.co.uk/ProductDetai... roductID=1779


Stuart

Stuart wrote:

On Fri, 14 Apr 2006 20:38:47 +0100, John White
wrote:

Stuart wrote:

My present electric shower is presently powered by a 45 A Fused Connection Unit
near to the CU and then has a pullcord switch mounted near the shower . As part
of my bathroom renovation I am putting in 10mm cable and will either replace the
existing 6mm or juust leave it in place for future use to avoid any upheaval
,probably the former .
What I was wondering ( but not necessarily adopting) was whether the pullcord
switch is really necessary .Could the shower not be operated by using the switch
on the FCU when the shower was to be used ?....just a thought .

You need an isolator between the supply and your shower unit. This is
a very specific sort of switch. Regulation 537-02-02 has the details
but in this case you need a suitably rated switch that breaks both the
Live and Neutral conductors and which has a mechanical indicator
showing when an appropriate contact gap has been achieved.

The switch on your FCU might be such an isolator - the pull switch
will almost certainly be one. It's also considered good practice to
put the isolator where it can be supervised by anybody working on the
circuit in order to guard against the equipment being switched on
while it is being worked on.

I've just realised that I misled you by saying FCU when I mean a Wylex type 104
45 A Switchfuse like this one only it is lower rated .I'm not sure that it is DP
as I can't see that either on the unit or in any description .It had the
original cartridge fuse replaced by an MCB

http://www.ryness.co.uk/ProductDetai... roductID=1779

The main switch is a double-pole isolator the MCB is not.

I would still keep the pull switch.

John

--
John White,
Electrical Contractor

My present electric shower is presently powered by a 45 A Fused Connection
Unit
near to the CU and then has a pullcord switch mounted near the shower.

The switch needs to be close enough to the shower so that someone working on
the shower can supervise it (i.e. preventing some muppet turning it on).
Alternatively, the switch must be lockable in the off position.

If the switch is by the consumer unit and not lockable, any electrician
working on the shower could get a nasty surprise when Ethel comes home and
flicks the switch.

Christian.

Not strictly true, isolation of a circuit should be made at the CU if
working on a circuit, it should be isolated means of a method stated
in BS7671. With regards to the Electricity at work regulations 1989.

Many showers have wall mounted switches, these are usually mounted
outside the bathroom, how would you monitor that when working on the
circuit..

DONT GIVE OUT ADVICE UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT U TALKING ABOUT.

WWW.NICEIC.ORG.UK IS THE BEST PLACE TO GET ADVICE.

Information concerning your queries can be found there.




On Tue, 18 Apr 2006 16:44:08 +0100, "Christian McArdle"
wrote:

My present electric shower is presently powered by a 45 A Fused Connection
Unit
near to the CU and then has a pullcord switch mounted near the shower.

The switch needs to be close enough to the shower so that someone working on
the shower can supervise it (i.e. preventing some muppet turning it on).
Alternatively, the switch must be lockable in the off position.

If the switch is by the consumer unit and not lockable, any electrician
working on the shower could get a nasty surprise when Ethel comes home and
flicks the switch.

Christian.

On Tue, 18 Apr 2006 20:25:02 UTC, "Billy The Kid ( The Original ) "
wrote:

WWW.NICEIC.ORG.UK IS THE BEST PLACE TO GET ADVICE.

LOL!!!

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
Avenue Supplies, http://avenuesupplies.co.uk

"Billy The Kid ( The Original ) " wrote:

I don't normally comment on this sort of thing, but wasn't the
original Billy the Kid a cowboy ?

Not strictly true, isolation of a circuit should be made at the CU if
working on a circuit, it should be isolated means of a method stated
in BS7671. With regards to the Electricity at work regulations 1989.

Perhaps you could tell us the correct way to do this then. I always
like to learn from an expert.

Many showers have wall mounted switches, these are usually mounted
outside the bathroom, how would you monitor that when working on the
circuit..

In precisely the same way that you would monitor any other circuit you
were working on where the control switch was out of sight.

DONT GIVE OUT ADVICE UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT U TALKING ABOUT.

WWW.NICEIC.ORG.UK IS THE BEST PLACE TO GET ADVICE.

No need to shout,.

Information concerning your queries can be found there.

Could you please point out where the answer to the original poster's
question can be found on the NICEIC web site. A URL would be nice.

Thank you

John
--
John White,
Electrical Contractor

In article ,
"Billy The Kid ( The Original ) " writes:
Not strictly true,

What's not true? Please learn to quote properly so we know
what you're talking about.

isolation of a circuit should be made at the CU if
working on a circuit, it should be isolated means of a method stated
in BS7671.

The shower isolator is for the _appliance_, not the _circuit_.

With regards to the Electricity at work regulations 1989.

Many showers have wall mounted switches, these are usually mounted
outside the bathroom, how would you monitor that when working on the
circuit..

That's a question for you to answer. Christian already
answered it in the posting which you are following up,
so if you somehow missed the answer, try reading it again.

DONT GIVE OUT ADVICE UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT U TALKING ABOUT.

That's really good advice for you to follow.
For your information, Christian's post which you are following
up is exactly and precisely correct in every respect.

WWW.NICEIC.ORG.UK IS THE BEST PLACE TO GET ADVICE.

It's one source of information, but your reference is rather
useless unless you can point to a more detailed URL. People
here tend to get the information directly from BS7671 though.

--
Andrew Gabriel