Permanently installing a multiplug

Electrical Fundamentals. AC power.
1

Hi all

In my rental chalet there is a double socket outlet in quite a random place on the one side of the bedroom and it is also half behind a cupboard.
The room have 2 three quarter beds, so ideally I would like to place power sockets closer to the beds for guest convenience.

My first thought was to get a multiplug and mount it against the wall between the 2 beds and just neatly run its extention cable against the wall to the socket. But I know you are not allowed to use cabtire for permanent installations.

So what will the correct, safe and legal way be to do this?
Will it be legal if I run the cabtire in conduit, or will it only be legal if I use surfix?

Some of these multiplugs already come with a length of conduit attached and these days the stuff is mostly sealed units, so I guess it will be ideal if I can use the conduit as is.

2

Besides the legalities I would steer clear of multiplugs. There appears to be no standard which these devices have to comply with and are probably the cause of many fires.
Rather get a regular plug point and mount it in a surface mount box fed with 2.5 mm twin and earth cable.

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3

If you have to ask for the correct legal way…
Why not get an electrician to do it, especially one that can even update the CoC?

And I mention this, because it is a rental. You definitely don’t want to cut corners in case something goes wrong and the renter decide it is a good time to take legal action.

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4

I’ll definitely get a CoC on it, hence the reason for wanting to do it according to code.

Electrically there is a lot on my property which is not according to code, so I’m ensuring everything I do is done correctly. I also fix things where I can and where it doesn’t cost a arm and a leg.

Eventually I will get the CoC updated or redone, whatever is needed. The current one is not worth the paper it is written on and the sparkie who did it disappeared from the face of the earth.

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5

Sadly this is all too common.
I understand that when your house burns to the ground the insurance assessors do a forensic investigation to establish if it was an electrical fault that caused the fire.

6

Recently I had a Initial CoC done on the house.

At one spot there was a multiplug, good solid one, permanently fitted.

Multiplug was plugged into a surface mounted plug.
Said plug was connected with correctly specced 3-core wire to a plug in a wall socket.
It passed.

7

Here are a few pointers:
The CoC givers out there, they take moerse chances with how they do it.

Electrical Board is aware of their shenanigans.

You’ll notice:
They all charge like R550 - R950 for the CoC, their time and testing.
But to get it issued, generally between R10k to R40k for that piece of paper.
Then they say, buy 3 checks upfront, it is “cheaper”.

Truce Bob.

What they do, most of them, they issue a CoC that is valid for 3-6 months … the one you get when selling a house … hence you need to get it “renewed” every 3-6 months.

No jokes.

When you tell them the CoC is valid until the house is on the market, need a CoC for that sale, they tend to argue … you can quote the law, they don’t care.

Once you get their report … work off that, fix it all, as per their list.
… you’ll probably see a bunch of hogwash in there too. Trust but verify “they” say.

Once done, get them back after all their fixes are done, BS called, and demand a Initial CoC to replace all previously issued CoC’s, and start using that Initial CoC as the main CoC to attach future changes to.

Sorted.

8

O, one more thing.

So you buy a house, it has a CoC for the sale.

Cool.

Check the expiry date!!!

You have until that date to get a Initial CoC on the house going forward, one that does not expire until you need a CoC to sell the house.

What did it cost me?
3 houses in one, split DB’s in each house, costed me R2500 with legit fixes to get a initial CoC over the entire house.

Over the years the sparkies that did work here, did the work by the book every single time.

9

A problem I have with COCs is that no two electricians seem to have the same idea of what is compliant and what isn’t. I had my house rewired last year.

Story: I had some work done - a new plug to go outside for a water pump. I said to the electrician “please take a look in the roof, I’m a bit wary of that wiring up there.” He took photos and showed me specific areas of concern and explained why they weren’t compliant. He then inspected the out buildings and didn’t like what he saw in there.

Specific example. There was flush fit plug point with surfix cable coming from under the screw on cover to feed a second plug point. He said no, that has to be a surface mount point with a proper gland on it for the exiting cable.

OK… this all sounds fine. But another electrician had worked in the same outbuildings, had seen that plug point, did change some of the wiring because the rating of the cable was lower than that of the circuit breakers, but didn’t express concerns about that particular plug point. He’d also been up in the ceiling and said it was a mess with chocolate box all over the place, but it was OK because it was code compliant when it was done. I asked how he knew when it was done he said well, it’s a 60s house and that’s how they did things then.

IDK.

Possibly the first guy didn’t want to do the job but didn’t want to say it in so many words. Possibly the second guy saw me coming (but I believe him because he gave detailed explanations for everything he didn’t like).

The first guy had also been asked to redo the COC after I had solar installed. He told me that that entire PV system (panels, batteries, inverter) counted as an “appliance”. Again I don’t know but I did raise an eyebrow whilst he wasn’t looking.

I don’t mean any disrespect to any electricians reading this, but it is an issue. One man’s fire hazard doesn’t bother another.

Where does this leave the poor home owner? We have to get in an electrician and hope they are being straight with us. Understanding, of course, that advice we’d rather not hear can still be sound advice.

I don’t mind that the COC has an expiry date. Who knows what will get changed by another party. The guy who did the rewiring took lots of photos, including the inside of the DB. Tells me that if there’s a complaint the first thing he does is go to the site and check what’s there against his photos (date stamped and geotagged). Tells me that many a time he makes this visit and asks the complaining owner to explain how those two new breakers in the DB got there.

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10

End of the tale: The guy running the business sends his team to do the rewiring. He’s already shown them photos of everything he wants done. Two days into the job they come to me and say that there’s cabling that was missed when the inspection was done.

I am now worried because I have a bit of a cash flow problem and I will just be able to pay the quoted price. So I call him to say look, just let your guys do what we shook hands on and we can get the rest done next month and you give me the COC then.

He says his guys already told him. It was his error. I gave him a brief to make the property compliant, I did not try to hoodwink him, he gave me a written, signed quote and he does not charge the customer more if he makes a mistake.

So he seems like an honorable chap.

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11

The lawyers should do that, surely.

12

That’s not bad at all.

13

No. Not their job. Their job is to file the paperwork, not arrange CoC’s.
Owners responsibility to know this … and now you know having read it here.

Or maybe the estate agent, or the attorneys, do point it out to the new owner.
But with all the excitement, owners would tend to forget.

Happened to this house. Never had a Initial CoC after the transfer.

Sparkies just issued Supplementary CoC’s for years with no reference to Initial CoC, field always left blank, until the last new build. New sparkie.

Asked for the Initial CoC … and then all hell broke lose.

Him refusing to issue the Supplementary CoC, needed it for the Occupation Certificate, until he had that Initial CoC in hand.
A good sparkie.

And then I learnt the scaly things electrical CoC issuers pull.

Any Supplementary CoC issues has to tie back to a Initial CoC.

One can go back and check the CoC’s in your possession.

You have to have the originals in your possession too.

All these solar systems signed off, on Supplementary CoC’s issued, is the Initial CoC reference noted on that document?

Go and check.

14

Thanks.

Years of watching, asking, double checking, asking sparkies to show me where it stands in the regulations.

And where it made no sense what they said, I will call on people I know who knows the standards.

And I have asked sparkies to leave …
And sparkies sending their staff years later, asking for the CoC for a job, telling me it is wrong. I then give them the CoC … that their boss issued me before.
Was fixed free of charge.

One sparkie told me, the 5kva grid tied inverter I have is illegal because it is too small.

No jokes.

He also installs Victron, hence me asking him for a quote for the Initial CoC.
Scaly money making racket to upsell a client who does not ask questions.

15

And I learnt about gas lines crossing AC/DC wires.

There are rules with that too.

Have CoC’s for the gas geysers installs too.
Re-issued if the gas geyser breaks/replaced.

Learnt:
One gas installer will says yes, we can do that, and give a CoC.
Real gas installers will say, yes, we can do it, but we prefer not. Because we cannot issue a CoC for the job.

I learnt a LOT in a very short period of time about Electrical and Gas CoC’s.

16

Personally, I would by suspicious of a CoC that costs only 2.5k. Unless, of course, you meticulously kept things perfectly up to date so that he had very little to do.

For 2.5k, I probably wouldn’t even get up off the couch :stuck_out_tongue:

17

Let me help calming your suspicion …

They checked EVERYTHING … and because I was onsite it saved them a ton of time with me pointing where what is how to get in/out, moving furniture around for them to get to plugs etc.