RE: LW10 wall switchs v.s Lamp Modules.

[Nigel Orr <nigel@xxxxxxx>]

At 10:25 08/11/00 +0000, you wrote:
> > Are the walls solid or plasterboard?  Cables in walls should
> > (and almost
> > always do) run in a vertical or horizontal line from outlets,
>
>Don't count on it though.

Very true, to be completely safe, assume the whole wall is live, with bare
wires behind the wallpaper, and proceed accordingly!  I recall a story on
news:uk.d-i-y where someone found that the
mains supply to their shower had
been split into it's live, neutral and earth cores, with each one run up
the gap between different tiles, and grouted over.  Unless you built and
documented it yourself, always assume the worst!

The limits I mentioned are those specified in the wiring regs, and IME are
usually adhered to by professional electricians.  What subsequently gets
added by the householder or well-meaning friends or relatives can be the
exception, but there are bound to be some 'bodgers' in the trade too.

>On a related note, are any of those 'cable detector' gadgets any good?

I've used 2- one is the little battery-powered screwdriver tester that is
widely available- looks a bit like a neon tester screwdriver, but can also
do proximity testing, the other was a Maplin "Live Wire Detector"
kit from
about 15 years ago (and probably still available- ISTR it used to regularly
feature as one of their most popular kits).  The screwdriver gives too many
false alarms to be useful (eg the LED comes on when you touch the wall,
usually!), but the Maplin kit is pretty good, and the sensitivity can be
varied if required.  I've not used any of the 'commercial' ones.

>useful sensitivity for working out where the cable is (unless my walls
>really do have a mesh of live mains cables embedded in them).

If there are diagonal cables, the sky's the limit- if you're lucky you
might even find spurs and stetsons left under the floorboards by the
installers...  Yeeeee haw!

Nigel


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