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Electrical

Fused switch, supply and load share same neutral terminal / can i take power from it

Anonymous user 28/02/2024 - 4.05 PM

Hi all, I have a fused light switch in an outbuilding fed directly from the fuse box using armoured cable. I was hoping to take a supply from the switch to another fused switch to power outside lights. When i opened it i have found the typical supply terminals and load terminals. I have only ever known the live, neutral and earth to go in to the own allocated terminals for supply and load but on this switch it has all 6 terminals as you would expect but whoever wired it have put both neutrals wires into the loads neutral terminal, nothing is in the supplies neutral terminal. Earths and lives all in the correct corresponding terminals for supply and load. So 2 questions. 1. Why is this. Light works as it should. 2. Can i move the neutral wire from the loads neutral terminal and put it back into the supplies neutral terminal so i can take power from it ?

Are you a tradesperson and able to answer this question?

2 Answers

Citelec

Rating: 5 out of 5

Crawley

Firstly yes it will still work but is not acceptable. When we used to use unlinked main switchs on a ccu we did isolate the neutral seperate to the live but for obvious reasons now we don't. I would reinstate. HOWEVER that being said this is an external supply so long before I reinstated it and given the wiring issue it should be checked. Is the supply protective device acceptable. Has the armoured been correctly installed. Is the earthing adequate. I would expect to find the armoured enter a correctly installed CCU not just an amateur Switched fused spur. Full EICR to verify the supply meets the correct values indicated in BS7671. To confirm ADS. In a nutshell any sensible spark would not just move a conductor without first checking the install. Hope that helps

Answered21 November 2022

Anonymous user

Well, its perfectly safe as it is because only the live is required to be switched and fused. However, if you want to spur off it to another switched spur then you should separate the neutrals into 'feed' and 'load' and spur off the feed terminals.

Answered21 November 2022