Yes, it looks as if you were right. Thanks. I was put off by the fact that the middle cable is so difficult (impossible?) to see in that close up that I assumed it had to be the one with only two cables. I guess the apparent difference is size is probably just because of different orientation.
As I said the oddity is that the installer seems to have brought the ring final cables up and down for both box 2 and 3.
Indeed so. This really needs investigating.
I presume you mean Box 1. Yes, that's what the OP's test suggests (although we don't know the nature of the 'voltage detector' he used), but this needs to be confirmed.
If one were doing it from scratch, certainly. However, given what already exists, it would seem unnecessarily meddlesome. If one really wanted to use the Box 1 backbox (but that would still require doing something about the existing cables to it) for a third single socket, one could simply move one the existing feeds to box 2 to box 1, and then link boxes 1 & 2.
That is indeed possible, and needs investigating. However, simply connecting sockets to boxes 2 and 3 would presumably make things 'no worse than they currently are'.
Indeed so. It really would be highly desirable to ascertain exactly what is going on. In addition to what you mention, another 'bad' theoretical possibility is that one or both of boxes 2 and 3 may once have had an FCU, rather than a socket, with the 'spur' now just being connected to the circuit without any fuse.
Yes, I realise that now - as I said, it was the 'invisible' middle cable that confused me! However, this doesn't alter anything else I said before.
Definitely. We cannot tell from here.
No one can tell.
You have three cables to each box.
You cannot put anything 'before' on a ring.
Neon screwdrivers can be unreliable. A voltmeter would certainly be better, but you need to be very careful in using it to test live circuits.
Yes, it's certainly odd, since (assuming they really are both on the same ring) they could have just linked boxes 2 and 3 together and avoided two of those drops from above. Hence the uncertainties about 'what is going on'.
To be frank, boxes 2 and 3 (or, more correctly, the whole arrangement of this sockets circuit) really needs to be investigated by a qualified person as well. I'm sure that sockets connected to those cables would 'work', but the uncertainties and oddities are such that you really should seek reassurance that there are not 'funny'/dodgy things about how that whole circuit has been wired.
Simply leaving box 1 'as is', with a blank plate over it, is certainly an option.
Not really - and, in any event, with the information you have you wouldn't know where to connect the FCU. You need to find out how that circuit is wired, and the chances are that the investigation will confirm that it's OK to just install the sockets.
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