There is no way I would install the supplied socket at a domestic property.

553.1.201

The circuit to the pod should be hardwired, not connected using this plug, socket and SY cable.

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever why the circuit SWA cable cannot be connected straight into the consumer unit.

Non-compliant and creating unnecessary work.

Thanks everyone for the opinions and comments

 JHFE 

If you are using 6.0 mm SWA install a B40 MCB in the main consumer unit in the house and connect the SWA directly into the pod consumer with a gland.

Better design, workmanship and compliant.

OlympusMons said:

Wanted tripping is where it saves a life surely.

Yes, you would want that.

Perhaps "intended" and "unintended" would be better words.

Presumably they don't have electricians in their installation crews, so prefer a 'plug and play' solution. We do the same in IT centres - racks that won't likely move in decades are still connected using 60309 connectors, simply to allow IT staff to re-configure things as they wish without the risks inherent in getting a screwdriver out and messing with exposed ends of individual wires.

Some modular building systems also use connectors between units - so they can be simply plugged together on site.

I'd also have concerns about using an unshuttered socket in a domestic environment (you might want to draw the supplier's attention to BS 7671's requirement for shuttered sockets in domestic environments) - if you need something over 13A then a interlocked 60309 socket would be my preference (so the socket can only be switched on after a plug is inserted and must be switched off before the plug can be withdrawn). Ideally the switch should be rated for isolation, but even the conventional 'functional only' switches would be a significant improvement over continuously live socket contacts.

If the pod has a single 30mA RCD as an incomer device, then there is no selectivity issue at all in having another 30mA RCD upstream that only covers that socket - whichever (or both) RCDs trip, exactly the same set of appliances and sockets are disconnected - there is no selection to be had. It's the same situation with caravans - where both the site sockets and caravan incomer have their own 30mA RCDs.

   - Andy.

presumably to help mitigate (up to ) 7% failure rate of RCDs to some degree but not perhaps, in practice,  as small as the 0.49% that maths alone might suggest

AJJewsbury said:

Some modular building systems also use connectors between units - so they can be simply plugged together on site.

Might those be installation couplers?

maybe so - https://www.ensto.com/en-gb/building-systems/products/cabling-systems/enstonet-xl-installation-couplers/installation-couplers/

   - Andy.

Having done rather a lot of driving during the last few years, it is not unusual to see two big lorries in convey on a motorway with half a park home on each.

Quite often I see these units with grey twin and earth cables fitted with blue trailing plugs and sockets dangling from them, so that when these units are bolted together on site the two halves of the electrical installation can be joined together.

I know it’s done, but that doesn’t actually make it right.

Sparkingchip - I suspect that the manufacturers of the outside pod unit will want to legally disassociate the safety of the electrics inside their pod from that of the customer; the customers state of supply - including RCD, (size and type), earthing and bonding, IR etc needs to be kept totally separate legally from their wiring internal to the unit.  

How else might they do that, other than to demand a finished socket circuit is provided for them to plug into?

An isolator may do the same job, if not better? But then they'd need to send electrically competent guys to site to build the pod.......I'd probably ask for the commando socket too. 

Same as a caravan, but the other way around; the caravan site owner is only responsible for the supply up to his hook up point and the state of the caravan electrics is the caravan owners problem.

I like AJs suggestion of an interlocked commando socket, that can only be turned on with the rotary switch above, when the male end is installed. 

I recon that this circuit from the house with the commando socket on the end of it must be treated as if its a simple socket circuit complete with 30mA RCD. Whatever gets plugged into it is besides the point; the pod may never arrive.