Can of worms

[beebolbod]

i've been rewiring my house and have come accross a situation that i need a quick and safe bit of advice for please.

it emerges that whoever did the work prior, decided to make the upstairs 'ring' a very long spur, which connects from the furthest socket down into the kitchen and then runs 90% of the kitchen sockets.

The other part of the 'ring' (which is essentially just a couple of uneven spurs) is simply 2 sockets. Both connect into a 32A RCD protected MCB.

My problem is that my wife is expecting another baby imminently and i dont have the time to rip up the upstairs carpet to rewire that section right now.

So my thinking is this....

In the meantime, just leave the upstairs/kitchen spurs on RCD protected 16A breakers and then when i have a bit more time disconnect the kitchen 'circuit' from the upstairs socket, which will then at least create an upstairs section. Run the upstairs spurs into individual 16a breakers on the RCD side.

Then (as the downstairs is all just boards throughout and therefore easy to access) come into the kitchen underneath on a separate 16A RCD protected spur and reconnect those sockets direct from the CU rather than from the upstairs 'ring'.

And finally make the upstairs a proper ring.

thoughts etc very welcome....

 

[securespark]

Providing the circuit does not cover >50m² and the EFL is satisfactory at the destination of the circuit, you could feed the radial with a 20A breaker. [Assuming 2.5mm² cable size or equivalent.]

 

[beebolbod]

EFL?

 

[ricicle]

i've been rewiring my house

EFL?

 

[securespark]

Earth Fault Loop.

You have read the regs/ OSG?


Next predicted post:

OSG?

 

[beebolbod]

How dare you! I'm new to all this and my current industry has more acronyms that you can imagine so the new sparky ones haven't all sunk in yet. This one escaped me but i do know what you're talking about.

You've reminded me, i do need a copy of the OSG.

 

[DESL]

EFL?

Thats not a problem as you are rewiring your house Building control will come and test your installation, assuming you notified them 48hrs before you started any work and they came and inspected the 1st fix

 

[beebolbod]

I'll be testing that myself. *anticipates sharp intakes of breath, wide eyed icons and vaguely condecending remarks*.

 

[aptsys]

EFL?

Thats not a problem as you are rewiring your house Building control will come and test your installation, assuming you notified them 48hrs before you started any work and they came and inspected the 1st fix

Building control in my area don't even do that, they just come once at the end and test it.

 

[DESL]

I'll be testing that myself. *anticipates sharp intakes of breath, wide eyed icons and vaguely condecending remarks*.

You're asking for advice then come out with remarks like this, it's an open invite for sarcasm.

We're all here to learn, even the professionals, so lets keep it polite and courteous.

While you get a copy of the OSG pick up a copy of the Electricians Guide to the Building regs and download this

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDF_ADP_2006.pdf

 

[beebolbod]

Sorry, didn't mean to be rude. I was just a bit taken aback at the instant assumption i was clueless becaues of the EFL question. I knew it as EFLI but it didn't click. Like i said, i'm new and learning so people who just add unhelpful comments annoy a bit.

I do have the guide to building regs and have done a part P course so on the one hand you could say i know a bit, and on the other you could wheel out the usual "a little knowledge is dangerous" and all that.

For the record, i'm an consultant engineer in mobile telecomms, the fundamental principles of which are .... electricity. I did a lot of the principles 12 years ago and due to a fear of leccy (until my recent course and a lot of practice) never touched so much as a plug.

Now i'm trying to teach myself, learn from people, do courses, and hopefully be fully competent one day to do all the domestic stuff. It's not rocket science after all.

My thanks for the advice so far, and sorry for being sarky.