How do I know what this cable is?

hooplah

When we got the house rewired I asked the sparks to run a cable out the back for a future shed. On someone's recommendation I think I asked for 10 square.

I want to check what it is now. There are no markings on the cable. It looks to me like 3 core armored cable. Could I judge anything by cable thickness?

jmBuildExt

10sq refers to the area of the intersection through it in mm. (I think 10sq has 10 1mm strands)
So you could actually measure it.

Stick a pic of it up beside a 2 euro coin (for scale...or better still a measuring tape) and i bet one of the guys here will be able to tell you.

(10sq will be very difficult to roll/bend)

hooplah

Thanks for that. I'm thinking this isn't 10sq so but I'll post a picture. Thanks again!

hooplah

Any suggestions?

gctest50

Before you do anything else, find the other end of it and be sure it's isolated

viper959

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2011

It looks like a 3 core steel wire armoured (SWA) cable. This is commonly used for mains voltage.
3 x 10 mm sq SWA will have an external diameter of about 18mm.

TheChizler

Never use a volt pen to check for absence of a live wire

viper959

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Tell me how

viper959 wrote: »

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In order of preference.

1 - Ask an electrician to check.
2 - Find both ends of the cable and make sure it is not connected to anything.
3 - Buy a multi meter (confirm it is working) and test conductors yourself.

testicles

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hooplah

2011 wrote: »

It looks like a 3 core steel wire armoured (SWA) cable. This is commonly used for mains voltage.
3 x 10 mm sq SWA will have an external diameter of about 18mm.

Thanks for that.

It's a little beaten up but the diameter looks like 12 - 13mm to me. Could you tell what that might be? I can't make sense of the table you linked to.

2011

hooplah wrote: »

Thanks for that.

It's a little beaten up but the diameter looks like 12 - 13mm to me. Could you tell what that might be? I can't make sense of the table you linked to.

It might be a 3 x 4mm sq. SWA

You could try different sized lugs on the cable to determine its size. As already stated it is important to ensure that the cable is dead. It may be best to get an electrician to assist at this point. A number of things need to be assessed before using this cable.

viper959

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hooplah

2011 wrote: »

It might be a 3 x 4mm sq. SWA

You could try different sized lugs on the cable to determine its size. As already stated it is important to ensure that the cable is dead. It may be best to get an electrician to assist at this point. A number of things need to be assessed before using this cable.

An electrician installed it and made it safe. It's not currently live. I won't be doing anything to it myself, and will get an electrician in to wire up my shed.

However to figure out what I can have the shed fitted out for it would be useful to know the capacity of this cable.

keithdub

Looks like 2.5 or 4 square cable to me

KERSPLAT!

Looks big for 2.5 but small for 10, maybe 6 but we're all only guessing.

.G.

The size of it will be stamped on the outer black casing somewhere. If you have at least a couple of meters of it visible out in the back garden you should be able to find the marking telling you what it is.

Wheety

Looks like the monster in Tremors.