MyNameIsUrl wrote:I have ceiling lights and wall lights switched separately by a 2-gang switch. I'm removing the wall lights, so the wiring to them, which is sunk into the plaster, will be redundant.
What would be good practice within the back box for the switch? Should I just cut the wiring off flush as it comes through the knockout hole?
One thing is certain, in accordance with
BS 7671, once the wall-lights are removed there must be no live wires left in the wall
¹. This can be achieved by de-energising them at the switch location.
As for the switch itself you have options.
1. Leave the switch and its wires in place but blanked offYou could make all the wires safe inside (by disconnecting all wires from each other, except for any Earth wires, and taping them up or putting them on connectors) then screw a blank plate over the box. (If you were really forward thinking you could put a note in there saying exactly where the wall light cables could be found).
2. Hide the switch completelyIf you want to completely hide the switch, by filling it for example, then you need to de-energise any live cables coming into that switch. How to achieve this will depend upon how it is wired. The rule is that you must not leave live wires hidden in walls
² without some kind of reference
³ so that afterwards their presence can be anticipated. Whether, once they are de-energised, you cut them off as they enter the box or leave them taped together in case the switch is ever re-instated is up to you. I am usually completely re-wiring the room with new switches in different locations, in which case I just chop them off.
Chris
¹ At a depth less then 50mm
² There are are some exceptions (shown in blue and green).
³ E.g. an electrical accessory or a cable emerging from the wall.