Advice On Terminating Live Wire - Non Professional

[fbac01]

Hi,

I'm hoping to get some advice. I'm currently having my bathroom refitted. Part of the refit involves removing an electrical shower and replacing it with a mixer.

  The electrician who came to remove the shower, among other things, seems to have taped the end of the wire at the point where it entered the isolating switch, and removed the fuse from my consumer unit, not removing the cable. I wanted to make sure that this was the correct way of securing the cable, as I have seen mention of a junction box

I'm keen to leave the cable in situ if possible, as there may be a need to install an electrical shower later on. Is this a suitable way of isolating the cable, and if not, what would you recommend to make this safe?

thanks in advance

Andy

 

[Andy™]

i would expect the cable to be disconnected from the fuse & neutral terminals, so it couldnt be switched back on again

 

[batty]

If the cable is not going to be used it should have been  removed from fuse box. Out of interest did the shower have RCD protection? Welcome to the forum.

 

[betty swollocks]

The cable should have been disconnected at the consumer unit/fuse box. Personally I remove the line and neutral tape them up but leave them accessible and useable inside the consumer unit so that they could be used in future, eg power into the loft space for lighting or socket power or both. I do the same for immersion heating circuits too.

 

[Evans Electric]

As my esteemed collegues have said , its useful to leave the cable for future use but it needs to be disconnected in the board and ,often, a label to say what it is.  

Its not good enough to merely remove the fuse or flick a breaker off.  

 

[fbac01]

Thanks for the responses all, and apologies for the delayed response. The shower didn't have RCD protection at the time.

 I'll have a quick look inside the consumer unit to see if the cable was disconnected. My personal preference is to keep the cable accessible, should we need to install an electric shower later on, so it's good to know that it can still be left where it is.

 Here's hoping I don't need to call the electrician back!

 

[batty]

If it is reinstalled it will need RCD protection. By mixer I assume you mean mixer valve so no electric involved? 

 

[brycenesbitt]

Do label BOTH ends of that cable, especially the disconnected end at the breaker.  It may seem obvious now, but just wait a few years...