Electric installation - is this right?

[G108]

Dear Professionals

I am not an electrician, nor am I about to undertake a project myself. But have some knowledge and I am concerned about an installation that’s been completed for my elderly mother.

This installation is in readiness for a stair lift. The closest power available to tap into is in the adjacent downstairs toilet. To explain, a few years ago an electric towel rad was installed in this toilet. To power it, a spur was taken from the upstairs ring in the bedroom directly above. This spur terminates with a switched fused outlet at ceiling level. The ‘load’ cable then travels down to a flex outlet next to the heater. All good, I think.

My concern: To provide power for the stair lift, the electrician has made changes. The original fused switch has been replaced with a blanking plate, behind which is a connector strip that now effectively extends the spur to knee height. The original flex outlet has been replaced with the fused switch. (This switch can now be operated whilst using the toilet..). Secondly, the power for the lift has been taken from the supply side of this switch, through the wall, terminating at another fused switch. This to me appears to be a daisy chain of fused spurs, the result of which means that the spur could draw more than 13 amps from the socket on the upstairs ring. Would it have been better to use the original fused switch to rate the spur to a maximum of 13A, then run both the heater and the lift from the supply side of the switch, each individually protected with their own fused switch?

Rest assured, I won’t tackle this myself. I just want to make sure this is done correctly. I would love to hear any thoughts you might have.

Thanking you in advance.
G

 

[G108]

I’m sorry - in my suggestion, I had meant the rad and the lift drawing their power from the load side of the original fused switch.

 

[John D v2.0]

if it's all hard wired then as long as the total rated load is not more than 20A, and the spur is in 2.5mm T&E cable, I can't see any specific problem with what you have mentioned.
A stair lift would be an intermittent load (unlike the towel rail) so that would make things better from an overheating point of view.

Both appliances could be powered from the load side, but if the load is close to or greater than 13A it could cause the fuse to run hot. And there's no benefit. Two similar fuses in series are not a good idea because you have two fuses to replace in case of a fault or overload.

 

[jj4091]

A stair lift would be an intermittent load (unlike the towel rail) so that would make things better from an overheating point of view.

Stair lifts are battery powered & the spur will only supply the charger which should be on constantly but only drawing power when charging at the top or bottom of the stairs, even then it will only be a very low current. Spur should be fused to 3A. Personally I would have fitted an un-switched spur for the stairlift rather than a switched one so that it cannot be accidentally switched off allowing the battery to go flat.

 

[G108]

Thank you to you both. Your responses are very much appreciated.
Best wishes
Graham