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What Is ‘Daisy Chaining’?
Daisy chaining of electrical supply cables is when you join one supply cable or adaptor to another to create a ‘daisy chain’ of electrical supply cables.
The image below shows an example of daisy chaining.
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This web page:
· Defines what daisy chaining of electrical supply cables is.
· Describes what problems daisy chaining of electrical supply cables can cause. |
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Daisy Chaining |
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Home > Landlords > Annual Electrical Visual Inspection – HMO & Buy to Let Landlords > Daisy Chaining |
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What Problems Does ‘Daisy Chaining’ Cause?
Daisy chaining is probably not unsafe by itself; the electrical supply of a house will probably have enough safety features to ensure safety. Note the use of ‘probably’ – a combination of events can conspire to make a daisy chain unsafe; do you want to rely on ‘probably’?
All electrical supply cables have electrical resistance – the longer the cable the greater the resistance. The voltage ‘drop’ across the resistance has to go somewhere – heat. Heat and electrical cables do not mix; the heat can melt cable insulation and cause fires in other nearby combustibles.
Daisy chaining suggests bad practice elsewhere; if you go into a restaurant that has food on the floor their is every chance the kitchen will be dirty. Because their is food on the floor you assume the kitchen is dirty – you stereotype. If a council official sees daisy chaining during an electrical inspection they will stereotype, they will assume the rest of the electrical installation is suspect.
If, as a landlord, you see daisy chaining what is the chance the tenant has bypassed an RCD? Increased the fuse rating to stop the fuse blowing? Would a court of law think it reasonable that you should check the rest of the electrical installation given the daisy chaining?
Daisy chaining will probably result in more nuisance RCD tripping or fuse blowing. The current that all the electrical appliances are using will be too much for the circuit; to keep the circuit safe the RCD will trip or the fuse will blow.
Links
Electrical Test And Inspection (UK)
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