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Underfloor Bus Bar Systems

Bob Cowie
The Definition in the Regulations for a Socket states " A Device, provided with Female Contacts, which is intended to be installed with the fixed wiring, and intended to receive a plug. A Luminaire track system is not regarded as a socket-outlet system"

From the above it would be my understanding that the Tap-Offs on an underfloor Bus Bar system are considered to be sockets. The exclusion of Luminaire track systems also appears to support this viewpoint as it infers that power Underfloor Bus Bar should be classed as sockets.
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    As someone has pointed out "what is the issue here". The issue in my case is not the tap-off's in use as they all will feed Floor boxes which have RCD Sockets, the issue is the spare ways on the Bus Bars. Clearly if the tap-offs are classed as sockets then they have to be RCD protected and this is not a practical solution at the tap-off locations given the quantity, therefore the only solution would be to protect the total Bus Bar at source. The Client does not want the inconvenience of a possible nuisance trip taking out a substantial amount of Desks and is also unwilling to produce a risk assessment to omit the RCD (for the spare tap-offs) which in my opinion would be an acceptable solution and would probably be accepted by the Designer. In the past some Bus Bar suppliers tap-offs were actually 13amp sockets but I am not sure if this is still the case. The obvious and best solution would be that Bus Bars tap-offs are not classed as Sockets to give the Designer some form of comfort. As a side issue PDU strips within Data Cabinets are a similar issue in terms of protection.
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  • 0
    As someone has pointed out "what is the issue here". The issue in my case is not the tap-off's in use as they all will feed Floor boxes which have RCD Sockets, the issue is the spare ways on the Bus Bars. Clearly if the tap-offs are classed as sockets then they have to be RCD protected and this is not a practical solution at the tap-off locations given the quantity, therefore the only solution would be to protect the total Bus Bar at source. The Client does not want the inconvenience of a possible nuisance trip taking out a substantial amount of Desks and is also unwilling to produce a risk assessment to omit the RCD (for the spare tap-offs) which in my opinion would be an acceptable solution and would probably be accepted by the Designer. In the past some Bus Bar suppliers tap-offs were actually 13amp sockets but I am not sure if this is still the case. The obvious and best solution would be that Bus Bars tap-offs are not classed as Sockets to give the Designer some form of comfort. As a side issue PDU strips within Data Cabinets are a similar issue in terms of protection.
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