BAN THE USE OF RING MAINS OR NOT

Lectrician said:
I hate rings, and prefer radials, but I will still use them while they are compliant.

Why? Why be a sheep and follow everyone else? Wire the circuits you prefer. Go, on, I promise I won't tell John!!
 
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RF Lighting said:
I like rings too.

I carry out a ring continuity test on every ring circuit I work on, as everybody should. Of the probably thousands of ring circuits I have tested over the years very few have loss of continuity.

Yes I have repaired plenty of ring circuits, and even one which had no earth continuity, and we found 4 separate breaks on this conductor (leaving some sockets with no earth)
.

Bit of a contradiction there, I was doing a pir today, there it was sure as eggs are eggs, a broken ring, had one last week too
 
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MR-DIAZ said:
It just makes a very good ( well to me ) installation to have in a room, 1 inspection box, fed from the main board that then feeds everything within that room. Simple.


Personaly, I like the above Idea, it makes very good sense.

Say a single 20A 2.5mm2 circuit feeds each room for Power & Lights from a 3A FCU.
 
I´m glade you like the system i think it´s been throughout well.

Just to add to this system is designed to take a max of 20 socket outlet per circuit.

In the kitchen which is of course separate the max number of socket outlets is 6 this also includes the socket outlet in the bathroom which ( I DO NOT AGGREE WITH ) If there´s more sockets needed then a separate circuit has to be installed within the kitchen. The fridge does not come under this limitation it´s connected to the house general socket outlets to balance consumption a little.
 
I've seen something similar in Austria and Germany, it appeared to me to be like a submain to the room, with a distribution box of fused radials for the lights and sockets.

IIRC the one I looked at had one in the main room and one in the kitchen, I don't think that "minor" rooms had their own.
 
Hi JohnD there´s no protection per room mate No sub-main just inspection boxes

the domestic system here is run in flexible tube into inspection boxes with connectors inside to distribute to the various points. No proection to all.
 
No John

10 amp for lighting, 16 Amp for sockets because the outlet are rated at 16 Amp max, 25Amp for the cooker. and 16 Amp for the water heater but a lot of people use gas here from a gas bottle. No more than 5 MCB´s per RCD




Well that good night from me and tomorrow i´ll start another thread on lets change it. Called one lump or two....night night.
 
i guess with 16A breakers for sockets you don't have very many on one breaker.

such a system has its upsides and downsides compared to our system of large 32A ring cuircuits with fused plugs (yes i know other cuircuit types are allowed in the uk but rings are dominiant by far).

advantages of the continental system
1: an appliance with a short will likely take down less other stuff (note: the british system USED to be better in this regard but that changed with the switchover from fuses to MCBs)
2: less chance of dangerous but hard to detect faults (no broken rings)
3: simpler for diyers to understand

advantages of the british system.
1: flexibility of load location, i don't have to worry about which sockets are on which cuircuit when deciding where to plug appliances in.
2: cable saving, the kitchen is a prime example of this, 32A is generally enough for everything except the cooker in a domestic kitchen but two 16A cuircuits would be very restrictive in how the appliances were sited.
 
I think the fused plug on a large-capacity circuit is the key benefit of the UK system. It enables you to have vast numbers of sockets in all convenient locations, and plug any normal appliance into any of them.

Since most people have central heating not plug-in electric fires the only cluster of heavy loads is round the kitchen or utility room, which we are tending to give theire own ring or radial these days. Apart from that the "floor area" limits we use are I think very reasonable.

We can get all those benefits with a ring or radial, I happen to like the ring especially when it is run horizontally in a neat row of accessories so there is no need for confusing spurs, but the fused plug is the most important (and very wonderful ;) ) thing and has served us well for 50 years.
 
and why is a 13A fuse and a B32 circuit breaker (UK) any better than an unfused plug and a C16 circuit breaker
 
Because I can have 40 sockets (or more) if I want to on my 32A circuit; and by correct selection of cartridge fuses I can appropriately protect my table lamp with a 3A fuse, my TV with a 5A fuse, and my electric fan heater and my oven with 13A fuses, all off a single circuit and MCB, and can safely run them all at the same time. By adding a a Pod to the MCB I can also protect all these outlets with an RCBO if I want to without needing to rewire anything.
 

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