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Interlocked sockets

Neil1980
Hi all.


Recently had a contractor carry out a periodic inspection on our site (warehousing and workshops) and they have specified that all the 16A and 32A (1ph & 3ph) sockets need to be interlocked.


Is this true, or are they just finding £5k of additional work to carry out?


I can only find reference to caravan sites (Sec. 708) requiring interlocked sockets. 


Any other sections that reference this requirement on industrial and commercial installations?


Thanks in advance,

Neil

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  • 0
    My guess is that your inspector is thinking about the plug/socket being used for functional switching (but I suspect he's got the detail wrong). There used to be a regulation (e.g. 637-05-04 in the 16th) that a plug & socket not exceeding 16A could be used for functional switching - so it was normal to see switches on 32A and larger sockets - presumably interlocked if you couldn't necessarily trust all your users to reliably switch off before unplugging. I suspect your contractor has that value in mind (but has muddled ≤ 16A with <16A). However from the 17th onwards the limit moved up to 32A from 16A (table 537.4) - so now no switches (interlocked or otherwise) needed on 16A or 32A sockets (but still might be for larger units).

       - Andy.
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  • 0
    My guess is that your inspector is thinking about the plug/socket being used for functional switching (but I suspect he's got the detail wrong). There used to be a regulation (e.g. 637-05-04 in the 16th) that a plug & socket not exceeding 16A could be used for functional switching - so it was normal to see switches on 32A and larger sockets - presumably interlocked if you couldn't necessarily trust all your users to reliably switch off before unplugging. I suspect your contractor has that value in mind (but has muddled ≤ 16A with <16A). However from the 17th onwards the limit moved up to 32A from 16A (table 537.4) - so now no switches (interlocked or otherwise) needed on 16A or 32A sockets (but still might be for larger units).

       - Andy.
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