Armoured cable

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whyme!

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I had an electrician run some armoured cable from an outside metal consumer unit to an eV charger. At the consumer unit the cable just enters through a hole, no gland or fixing. Is this acceptable?
 
It’s certainly not ideal , at the very least there should be an SWA gland at the CU end. What about at the charger end ?
 
Murdochcat said:
It’s certainly not ideal , at the very least there should be an SWA gland at the CU end. What about at the charger end ?
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Not checked that, will do tomorrow but nothing at consumer unit, just passes through a hole cleated to wall but no gland.
 
Your details say Berkshire but you have posted in Outside UK, in some countries it may be acceptable, in the UK however EV charging points can be a problem, there are in general three problems.
1) DC stopping RCD's working.
2) Load too high for the supply.
3) Method of earthing the supply.
To protect against some of the problems often an earth rod is required. And the designer has to look at where the charge point is going and work out what is required, this depends on distance from bonded parts, and earthing system already on the supply. And what is already built into the charge point.

In the main setting up the charge point needs the electrician to return to college and take a course on what is required, this could mean having a different earthing system to main house. This can mean the SWA is only bonded on one end, it could be either end, but not both, so without inspecting it is near impossible to say if OK or not. What does the paperwork say?

I am asking you what paperwork you have, and I am actually in the same position, I had solar panels fitted and some paperwork arrived and I though all seems good, but now getting worried as rest of paperwork has not arrived.
 
ericmark said:
Your details say Berkshire but you have posted in Outside UK, in some countries it may be acceptable, in the UK however EV charging points can be a problem, there are in general three problems.
1) DC stopping RCD's working.
2) Load too high for the supply.
3) Method of earthing the supply.
To protect against some of the problems often an earth rod is required. And the designer has to look at where the charge point is going and work out what is required, this depends on distance from bonded parts, and earthing system already on the supply. And what is already built into the charge point.

In the main setting up the charge point needs the electrician to return to college and take a course on what is required, this could mean having a different earthing system to main house. This can mean the SWA is only bonded on one end, it could be either end, but not both, so without inspecting it is near impossible to say if OK or not. What does the paperwork say?

I am asking you what paperwork you have, and I am actually in the same position, I had solar panels fitted and some paperwork arrived and I though all seems good, but now getting worried as rest of paperwork has not arrived.
Click to expand...
Yes wrong forum.
Cable size and rcd all right for the 7kw load with EV charger, just I would have expected the cable to be fixed to the consumer unit in some way. maybe regulations don't specify this?
 
The house earth may not be used by the charge point, it may have an earth rod instead. To jump in and say you must have this or that without actually seeing the installation would be wrong, as there could be a valid reason for not using a gland when earth not exported. Myself however I would use a stuffing gland where not exporting the earth on one side. So does seem likely some thing wrong.

For EV chargers well it could also apply to any outdoors supply, one has to protect against an broken PEN and also DC freezing the RCD, and overload the incoming fuse. In the main a special SWA is used which also carries data, often earth rods are fitted, but it depends what is built into the EV point.

I have seen plastic CU warped due to fitting a gland, but not the new metal type, the paperwork may help, but as said I am also waiting for paperwork to arrive.
 
This consumer unit is metal in a waterproof outside unit next to main meter. 25mm tails are used and cable is on a 15m run protected by an rcd. This consumer unit is used for outside lighting and jacuzzi.
 
The armoured cable should be glanded at both ends. Not just passed through a hole.
 
I was always taught to gland both ends to ensure continuity of the armour.
 
Harry Bloomfield said:
I've seen the armouring simply clamped down to the metalwork, as an alternative.
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Yes, I've seen some sights in my time as well Harry. Quite frightening, some of them.
My late FIL had run a 4mm swa into his garage and to a small plastic 2 way CU. Cut the armour back about 3" from the CU and taped over the ends. From the CU he had a 1.5mm 3 core cable feeding a twin socket at the side. Also from the CU he had lengths of 0.75 2 core round cable to 4 different types of light fitting. 1 x 4' fluorescent screwed toa joist with the cable squashed behind the fitting for a back entry, 1 batten lamp screwed to a joist by only one screw so he could feed the cable into the back, t pendant light, also using one screw and overhanging the edge of the joist and one lamp holder with a low energy lamp in it, simply hung over the joist by wrapping the cable around it several times to stop it slipping down. These were controlled by a pull cord near the side entrance. However, after leaving the 6amp mcb in the CU he then fed the lights through a non-switched FCU containing a 13A fuse. From the FCU the pull cord switch was attached merely by 2 short lengths of red, single core cable which must have been no more than 0.75, probably even 0.50
It has now all been ripped out and done correctly with 2.5mm for a ring circuit, (3 sockets at present but with 3 loops in the rafters for 3 future sockets), and 1.5mm for the lighting, which consists of 4 fluorescent style LED lamps. Correctly terminated through the back via a hole drilled in the joists and two-way switching between side door and main door. Oh, and there was enough slack on the swa to be terminated correctly into a new, metal cased CU unit with a 6A lighting circuit and 32A ring circuit MCB's with 30mA RCD. All fully tested and certified as working correctly.
 
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