Browse Forums Building Standards; Getting It Right! 1 Dec 11, 2008 10:11 pm Dumb novice question here....
We are installing Acoustic insulation in our internal walls and have a question about working around electrical wiring. Is it legal to put the wiring between the bats? Someone has suggested that this might be a fire risk. Any answers? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ regards sean Re: Wall insulation and electrical wiring 2Dec 11, 2008 10:20 pm You would need to seriously overload the cable to cause overheating (like short circuit) and it would trip your circuit breakers and your safety switch long before you had a fire.
Ed "ECOECO" At 'EcoEco', we design windows, we design the best windows, we do it for you, so that when you’re happy we are happy. Tel. 1800 326 326 Re: Wall insulation and electrical wiring 3Dec 11, 2008 10:28 pm Thanks Ed! An answer in just a few minutes. I can go to sleep happy now and plan on finishing it off over the weekend.
regards sean Re: Wall insulation and electrical wiring 4Dec 11, 2008 10:32 pm Especially safe in a steel frame home - natural earth - and nothing to burn... I have one too...
Ed "ECOECO" At 'EcoEco', we design windows, we design the best windows, we do it for you, so that when you’re happy we are happy. Tel. 1800 326 326 Re: Wall insulation and electrical wiring 5Dec 15, 2008 8:03 pm Wrong, wrong, wrong...
Who has installed the cable? Who has installed the insulation? Is the cable suitably derated for installation surrounded by insulation.... What size Circuit Breakers are protecting the cable? What size is the cable? Electrical Engineer... Don't hold that against me... And keen owner builder... Mainly the building part!! Re: Wall insulation and electrical wiring 6Dec 15, 2008 10:06 pm Thanks - what should the standards be with and without insulation? Cable size and circuit breakers.
How do people work with blow in insulation in older style houses? Thanks Ed "ECOECO" At 'EcoEco', we design windows, we design the best windows, we do it for you, so that when you’re happy we are happy. Tel. 1800 326 326 Re: Wall insulation and electrical wiring 7Dec 16, 2008 6:04 pm With insualtion surrounding the cable
If your lighting cable is 1mm2, then you should have an 8A breaker.. Lighting cable can be 1.5mm2 which means a 10A circuit breaker maximum... Power cable will be 2.5mm2 which means a 16A circuit breaker maximum... Without insulation 10A, 16A, and 20A as above... Blow in insulation can be a problem with an underated cables... The installer typically doesn't worry about the derating needed... Electrical Engineer... Don't hold that against me... And keen owner builder... Mainly the building part!! Re: Wall insulation and electrical wiring 8Dec 16, 2008 11:02 pm chuth77 With insualtion surrounding the cable If your lighting cable is 1mm2, then you should have an 8A breaker.. Lighting cable can be 1.5mm2 which means a 10A circuit breaker maximum... Power cable will be 2.5mm2 which means a 16A circuit breaker maximum... Without insulation 10A, 16A, and 20A as above... Blow in insulation can be a problem with an underated cables... The installer typically doesn't worry about the derating needed... Thanks - so basically you can overcome any insulation problem by changing the cuicuit breakers? Ed "ECOECO" At 'EcoEco', we design windows, we design the best windows, we do it for you, so that when you’re happy we are happy. Tel. 1800 326 326 Re: Wall insulation and electrical wiring 10Mar 28, 2009 8:11 pm The ratings above are generally correct...
I was looking at the Australian Standard for ceiling insulation about a year and a half ago (when I was looking at getting it installed in my ceiling to take advantage of the original govt. rebate) and didn't recall seeing any mention of keeping the new insulation away from old cables. There is mention of distances from halogen globes in the insulation standard, and I wonder how many insulation installers follow the requirements for the halogen globes, let alone informing the customer that they'd need to get an elecrician in to reduce the rating of all their circuit breakers once the insulation has been installed!!! If the circuit breakers are not reduced in rating once the ceiling insulation is installed over the top of the cables, then there is a chance the cabling may overheat to an extent that the CABLE insulation is damaged and a fire results... This is more of a problem in ceilings, as it's rare for wall insulation to be installed after the house is built. In the case above, the rating of the cable would be greatly diminished as it would be classified as "completely surrounded by thermal insulation" in AS3008. edit: reference to CABLE insulation, so as to not be confused with thermal insulation Re: Wall insulation and electrical wiring 11May 20, 2009 10:47 pm Hi all While we are on the electrical wiring. However a little off topic, so sorry about that. I have a sewer pump 10 meters from my power box. I was told it needs to have its own circuit breaker, can not be 3 pin plugged into an outside power point. It needs to have it’s owe power source; I mean you can’t tap it into the light power wire. It must come from the box. I don’t know much about it as you can tell. What’s involved in setting this up? I have been charged (over charged) $645 to run 10 meters under ground from my pump to the power box and to install the circuit breaker. Is that excessive or not? Thanks to all KW………. “It's just as unpleasant to get more than you bargain for as to get less” George Bernard Shaw. Re: Wall insulation and electrical wiring 12Jun 01, 2009 8:09 am King willy Hi all While we are on the electrical wiring. However a little off topic, so sorry about that. I have a sewer pump 10 meters from my power box. I was told it needs to have its own circuit breaker, can not be 3 pin plugged into an outside power point. It needs to have it⤮s owe power source; I mean you can⤮t tap it into the light power wire. It must come from the box. I don⤮t know much about it as you can tell. What⤮s involved in setting this up? I have been charged (over charged) $645 to run 10 meters under ground from my pump to the power box and to install the circuit breaker. Is that excessive or not? Thanks to all KW⤦⤦⤦. I would need to know the kw or hp rating of the pump; from what you've mentioned, I would assume it must be high enough to warrant it's own circuit. The reason the price was so high is because of the labour to dig the trench; if you could've dug it yourself, you could've saved a significant amount of $$$. The materials cost would've been considerably low compared to the labour costs. As a new circuit has been run, it needs to be RCD protected if it has a power point on the end of it (You mentioned only a circuit breaker). If the pump is directly hard-wired into a weatherproof box, then the RCD technically isn't needed. AS3000 requires all new residential power and light circuits to be RCD protected. The new AS3000 also extends that requirement for all other installations other than residential. There should now be a drawing in the switchboard showing where the underground cable has been installed. This is a new requirement of AS3000. Imagine you decide to put a shed or pergola or install a pool across the route of the cable in 10 years time, and can't remember where the cable was (the pool installer isn't going to have any idea at all), and end up digging through it!) Re: Wall insulation and electrical wiring 13Jun 10, 2009 1:47 am Kind of on topic, I am planning on removing the weatherboard around the outside of my house, installing batts and then putting them back on again. I was thinking it would be a good idea to run some conduit and have a sparky come and put in some additional plug in some of the outside walls while I was already doing stuff there. Would it require new circuit breakers, or will running the cable through conduit remove the need? Re: Wall insulation and electrical wiring 14Jul 10, 2009 7:34 pm StuRat Kind of on topic, I am planning on removing the weatherboard around the outside of my house, installing batts and then putting them back on again. I was thinking it would be a good idea to run some conduit and have a sparky come and put in some additional plug in some of the outside walls while I was already doing stuff there. Would it require new circuit breakers, or will running the cable through conduit remove the need? I'm not quite sure I fully understand your question. Are you asking whether you can run conduits in the walls to make it easier for your electrician to run cables for some new outside (weatherproof) power points? You wont necessarily need a new circuit all the way from the switchboard, but it depends on how loaded-up the existing circuit already is, and what you intend on plugging into the new outside power points... Additionally, if a new circuit is run, or if extra points are added to an existing circuit, then an RCD needs to be installed regardless. Re: Wall insulation and electrical wiring 15Jul 12, 2009 10:53 am Sorry for the confusion The power points will be inside. I was wondering if I could put the conduit in now, and when we get the house rewired, have a sparky run the cables down the conduit and put a wall plate on the (inside) wall. Re: Wall insulation and electrical wiring 16Jul 12, 2009 2:00 pm Putting the conduit in while the walls aren't sheeted will make it easier for the sparky to run cables later, especially if there is insulation in the walls, and even more if there are noggins (horizontal timbers) as well. Hi all, Just wondering if anyone had suggestions on installing/replacing wall insulation on an external wall which doesn't have wrap, our miners cottage being constructed… 0 4933 1 19709 DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair Hi all, I’m in a house built 7 yrs ago. One bedroom wall faces East and gets strong morning sun. It’s a gyprock wall with hebel exterior. One section of the wall,… 0 2313 |