It depends on how the terminal screw is designed. If it has space and a big flat head and the cables are put carefully under it and it's tightened properly they'll hold and make good contact for years. If not you're in trouble!
Paul: Generally in UK domestic installations you use quite small Consumer Units / Boards? i.e. just a single DIN rail?
Most of the rest of Europe, including Ireland, tends to use much more spacious boards. Typically here they're at about 30cm by 30cm (very aprox. I'm not 100% sure of the current dimentions that's just a rough eyeballed guess!) But you'll get two rows of MCBs in.
Some 1970s installations tend to be all Ring circuits or 2 rings and 1 lighting circuit so you just have 3 big diazed fuses and 1 smaller one for lights. That way of doing things doesn't seem to have remained common practice however. We seem to have switched back to radials again despite not being legally required to for any reason. I think many contractors just consider rings an added complication particularly considering that you have to route the cables back to the board at both ends. In sprawling bungalows (quite common here) it's much easier not to have to do that!
[This message has been edited by djk (edited 10-21-2003).]
