Wire thickness and securing to receiver

Paulbart
Paulbart
edited November 2022 in General Questions & Topics

Our previously installed bdr91 center/honeywell receiver came with quite thick insulation cable. Sound enough but this makes the tiny screws and panel flip when attempting to secure into the tado receiver. It's otherwise sitting snug with the panel over it but could be thebibgest flaw of the install. Would there be a more sufficient way to secure the wire insulation close to the receiver? Better safe than sorry.

Answers

  • Personally, I'd swap the old cable for the Tado provided one.

    Take a photo of the existing wiring in the wiring centre first so you don't forget where things go.

    Assuming you have S or Y plan, Google the wiring diagram.

    Not much harder than wiring a plug, but you'll need to ensure you fully isolate the wiring centre first. Beware of multiple live feeds. Best to isolate everything at the consumer unit. (Mine actually comes from two live sources and uses electronic relays due to legacy wiring challenges).

    Call a pro (or a competent friend) if you're not fully comfortable doing this yourself. You don't want to get on the wrong end of mains voltage.

    A less satisfactory option, if you have enough available wire after the outer sheathing, would be to pull the existing cable out of the Tado receiver so that you can clamp to the inner cables, but then use electrical insulation tape to create an artificial sheath over those so that they're still covered up into the unit.

    You could, of course, cut back some of that outset sheathing to do what I've just said. With the power off!

  • Thanks for your sensible suggestion. When can you pop round? Kidding (partially).

    I appreciate Tado provides a reasonably sized cable but the choice of cable relies on how the installer set it up. It's actually feeding the receiver from the outlet and then the wires continue to the boiler. Not messing with the boiler, simply avoids any warranty problems.

    I could ask the guy at the next service to replace the wire but realistically that clamp and screws are just too thin for what pro installers are using to secure most boilers. It needed thinking about on the same level as the TRVs adapters Tado provide.

    Just so you know it's a combi boiler which was already set up as a potential free. I'm still thinking a clamp is the solution though. Cheap and simple.
  • Ah yes, if it's wired directly to the boiler, I wouldn't touch it at that end.

    You could add a small wiring centre (junction box) between the two though (wire boiler to box, then box to receiver).

    Does your boiler run weather compensation?

    If not, if you wait (as you suggest) and it's not there already, you might also want to think about asking the pro to wire up the boiler modulation (OpenTherm) if your tado version has modulation (v3+ wired does, but wireless now doesn't) and your boiler can accept modulating controls.

    Should give you a more efficient system by allowing the boiler to condense more consistently.

    Don't run Todo modulation with weather comp though. It won't play nicely. I personally prefer WC.