Drilled a power cable

how well will you sleep if you do this?

you are going to hang a picture over it anyway

may be difficult as the wires are usully stapled to studs when installed

turn off electricity and revert to coal? (joke too!)

Options 2 or 3 only. Option 1 is NOT a good choice!

Ben Miller

You need to locate where the cable goes from and to - which will also allow you to identify whether it is part of the ring or just a spur off it.

If it is part of the ring, then you may have parted a conductor without any apparent effect on any of the sockets. With the ring being incomplete the fuse/breaker is not going to give adequate protection to the remaining cables - which will greatly increase the risk of a fire at worst and hasten the day of a complete rewire of the ring, at the very least.

The most suitable repair is to replace the cable - typically it will just be a short run from one socket to the next on the ring. Typically, you don't have to run the replacement cable through the same route - as long as it runs between the same two points.

It may be possible to pull a new cable through, using the old cable - depending on how it was installed - eg in a tray under the plaster.

It may also be possible, depending on how the ring is configured and where the cables run, to convert the socket to which it runs to a spur, using the remaining undamaged cable, and remake the ring. Disconnecting and isolating the damaged cable, of course.

So, firstly look to see if you can replace the entire damaged cable, back to the points at which it connects to the ring.

If that isn't possible, consider whether you need the socket to which the cable goes. You may be able to remake the ring, bypassing the socket completely - then remove it and plaster up the hole.

If that isn't possible, look to see if the ring could be remade, with the damaged cable disconnected and the good cable used as a spur to that particular socket.You won't be able to do this if you have already reached the spur limit on the ring.

If that isn't possible and it is a ring cable and not a spur, look to fitting say a fused spur outlet in the spot where the hole is. You may be able to pull through enough slack to do this - the cable is probably run in a plastic tray under the plaster. Depending on the location, the fused spare could actually look intentional and could even be useful...

The choices go on and on - depending on the actual layout you have and what your priorities are.

What you don't want is an inaccessible screw-down join - especially buried in the wall or even under the floorboards.

| If it is part of the ring, then you may have parted a | conductor without any apparent effect on any of the sockets. | With the ring being incomplete the fuse/breaker is not going | to give adequate protection to the remaining cables - which | will greatly increase the risk of a fire at worst and hasten | the day of a complete rewire of the ring, at the very least.

This is one of the reasons I believe ring circuits to be fundamentally unsafe. It is because a wire can become disconnected in some way but the circuit will not give any appearance of a problem while the wires remaining will overheat at full capacity.

No, you've figured out the basics. Its used in the UK, but its illegal in the US.

I am assuming a ring is a circuit that starts in a panel and goes sequentially to the outlets and returns to the panel where both ends of the ring are connected. I have never seen this configuration and doubt it would be used because of added cost and minimal advantage.

If a ring is as described, breaking it would have no effect on protection - the whole cable would have to be rated for the branch circuit rating. The damaged segment could be disconnected at its ends.

Is ring something else?

Bud--

The OP is posting from BST - i.e the UK. Using a ring=20 circuit is standard practice in the UK. The mention of 13A=20 was also a give-away.

I am sorry but I suggest that you research UK wiring=20 practice before giving advice relating to it. A UK ring is=20 actually fused at a higher rating than an individual cable=20 capacity, believe it or not, it just happens to be true.

You can then work out for yourself the effect of leaving out=20 a segment - the cables in the multi-drop "spurs" created=20 would not be adequately protected unless the fuse was=20 changed also.

Wiring practice does vary a lot around the World but I must=20 admit that using the time zone to identify the location can=20 be misleading - AFAIK, Haiti shares a time zone with the=20 USA, but the wiring practice is a tad different...

--=20

Sue

Hey all - thanks for the advice - yes I am in the uk. I'm thinking a lower fuse for now should offer some protection until I figure the long term answer.

The OP is posting from BST - i.e the UK. Using a ring circuit is standard practice in the UK. The mention of 13A was also a give-away.

I am sorry but I suggest that you research UK wiring practice before giving advice relating to it. A UK ring is actually fused at a higher rating than an individual cable capacity, believe it or not, it just happens to be true.

You can then work out for yourself the effect of leaving out a segment - the cables in the multi-drop "spurs" created would not be adequately protected unless the fuse was changed also.

Wiring practice does vary a lot around the World but I must admit that using the time zone to identify the location can be misleading - AFAIK, Haiti shares a time zone with the USA, but the wiring practice is a tad different...

This is a theoretical possibility, but in practice it seems not to happen, or at least, not to be a source of fires. This may be because it is in practice extremely rare that a ring is run anywhere near full load (7.5kW).

OTOH, if you do get a bad connection in a ring which starts going high resistance, it doesn't overheat because there's an alternative path.

What is the purpose of wiring a ring circuit? I suppose in theory it could carry twice the current safely (a ring wired with 14 gauge could carry 30A), but an undetected break or a problem like what the original poster had gives me the heebie-jeebies. If they use a size close to 14 gauge with the 13A breaker mentioned, I see no real advantage.

It also has half the voltage drop to a given outlet. I once did some comparison on using ring circuits in typical USA situations. It looses much of its value when lighting is at 120V and large appliances are at

240V. Also the typical urban "flat" in the UK can use a ring circuit(s) in a way that the typical USA dwelling cannot. It does save on copper!

I don't worry about how much copper I use for my own use, and most of my commercial work was in communications, so you had to use the specified cabling for the contract.

People tell me that I'm weird because I use EMT for all the wiring on my property, but it is my property, and I would rather spend a little more and not have to worry about damage, or what could happen to one or more of the buildings if the wiring is damaged.

I think that is the reason they are not allowed in the US. They want it to be obvious that there is a fault, before there is major damage or even a death.

I agree! One of the worst things that happened to commercial communications equipment was the use of cheap "RCA" jacks and RF connectors that use the co-ax conductor as the center connector.

In the early 50's, I knew contractors that used only #12 wire. The extra cost was made up by not stocking both #12 and #14. With the cost of copper now that's not possible.

I built a house in Santa Barbara, CA, and wired it myself using EMT. It really isn't that much more difficult or expensive than flex. I also did the plumbing using cast iron sewer pipe. (I'd be tempted to use plastic now!):-)

I've used thousands of PL259 and BNC connectors at radio and TV stations over the last 35 years. I've used a lot of "N", "HN" and "SMA" connectors working in Telemetry, plus some "F" and hardline connectors when I engineered CATV systems. Not many "RCA" (AKA Phono) connectors outside of consumer electronics.

Some "F" fittings are actually fairly good, but they are rarely used outside of a CATV headend. They have low RF leakage, and a very small impedance bump when you look at the line with a TDR. The common separate ring or chinese made gold plated stuff is real garbage. When I worked for United Video I tested samples of all RF distribution items in our lab before they were allowed to be used in the field. I failed most connectors by simply tightening them to the rated spec and watching them snap, or strip the threads. I had to laugh at one sample lot. SOme company sent us a couple dozen "F-56" connectors machined out of good brass. They were excellent quality, and met all the specs, except they weren't plated. They wouldn't last a month in the winter time in Cincinnati with all the road salt that gets stirred up and lands on the overhead wires.

I still prefer to sweat copper for water supply and waste water lines. You can take it apart and reuse it if needed, but plastic ends up with extra splices with every repair.

The last work I did with black iron pipe was to install a new gas service to my home in Ohio. The jerk from CG&E was gloating that no home owner had ever passed the test on the first try, and he failed over

75% of the work contractors did, and that he got paid for every trip back to the jobsite. He did a visual inspection of the new piping and it was a "Kodak Moment"! His jaw dropped as he tried to figure out how I got a 21 foot piece of pipe into a basement with no windows. I finally felt sorry for him and explained that I dug the hole outside to a deep slope and slid it in, then back filled the edge of the hole. Then he got really mad when it passed on the first try. He tested it three times, and grudgingly had to admit that "SOME" home owners knew what they were doing.

Where in the NEC is this adressed?