The Little Things Matter...

[Marvo]

I just saw another thread with a photo of an arbitrary pump control panel. The wiring was poorly terminated with no crimp on lugs and lots of copper showing and the cables entered through an oversized grommet with their full weight hanging off the terminations.

A lot of the time failure of control panels, expensive burned out pumps and even failure of general circuits is down to the little things not being paid attention to and/or minor corner-cutting so I thought I'd start a list of the small things you should get into the hang of always doing. It's easier to get into good habits from scratch as a trainee rather than have to retrain yourself into them at a later date.

 

[Marvo]

Okay, here's the first one from the post I mentioned I saw above.

Stranded conductors should always have a crimp-on lug or bootlace ferrule fitted before terminating. Fork terminals or appropriately rated push-on terminals can be used for the live and neutral conductors but a ring terminal should be used for the earth. The incorrect way can be seen at the bottom and the correct way can be seen on the manufacturers wiring at the top.

Note the manufacturers have even used a ring terminal on the earth. Also note the extremes from the installer with lots of copper showing on some terminations and then the pump neutral with its insulation two thirds of the way into the termination.

 

[GMES]

A pet hate of mine as well is when cable just get thrown in with total disregard, see how the neutral cross under the earths before they terminate, this is not only untidy but also later down the line when more cables get added it becomes harder to trace the wiring when fault finding.
A little piece of panel trunking would have made it look 10 times neater and cost pennies,
As Marvo says, do it right from the start and you won't go wrong.

 

[Marvo]

Same panel.

Cables enter through an oversize grommet which means their weight is hanging on the terminations. Also there's a good chance this panel is outdoors so insect entry will also be a problem.

 

[Bobster]

Just to note @Marvo, BS7671 has a regulation specifically for fine stranded wire. They must be suitably terminated. Like you say a bootlace, crimp, soldering (tinning) is no longer allowed for most applications.

Manufacturers tend to ultrasonically weld the ends ready for termination in plugs etc..

 

[Marvo]

@Rob I realise it's not very fashionable anymore but has solder tinning specifically been outlawed in the UK regs? I must admit I still do it occasionally but not in the UK obviously.

 

[Bobster]

@Rob I realise it's not very fashionable anymore but has solder tinning specifically been outlawed in the UK regs? I must admit I still do it occasionally but not in the UK obviously.

I haven't got a copy of the regs to hand to quote it, out working in the US currently.

It doesn't forbid it, but the times you can use them baisicly makes it a moot point, especially with how cheap/fast ferrules and crimps are.

 

[JAWS]

Same panel.
View attachment 44645

Cables enter through an oversize grommet which means their weight is hanging on the terminations. Also there's a good chance this panel is outdoors so insect entry will also be a problem.

That grommet does not lead the outdoors, its a 2 layer panel where compression glands are fitted.

 

[GMES]

Also having looked at the picture again, you may struggle to get any trunking in that short run, the concept still stands though for other panels, start as you mean to go on.

 

[MFS Electrical]

I just saw another thread with a photo of an arbitrary pump control panel. The wiring was poorly terminated with no crimp on lugs and lots of copper showing and the cables entered through an oversized grommet with their full weight hanging off the terminations.

A lot of the time failure of control panels, expensive burned out pumps and even failure of general circuits is down to the little things not being paid attention to and/or minor corner-cutting so I thought I'd start a list of the small things you should get into the hang of always doing. It's easier to get into good habits from scratch as a trainee rather than have to retrain yourself into them at a later date.

Couldn’t agree more
Work on being neat and tidy with attention to detail and speed will come with experience.