Because, for those who are pedantic about adherence to the word of the regs (certainly not me!), the regs say that the only things which may be connected to ring final circuits are "accessories to BS1363".
You won't find a junction box which is one either, but Appendix 15 shows them on ring finals.
Indeed - so I'll leave you to work out the relationship between the words of the regs and the content of that 'informative' Appendix
Such pedanticism (about switches etc.) is obviously nonsense, and the common sense of the situation is, IMO, very clear.
Just out of sheer interest, where in BS7671, does it state that only accessories of BS1363 type can be used on a RFC?
Indeed so.
Quite. As I said:
Having said that, as PBoD's earlier comment illustrated, application of that common sense can rely on the assumption (which he he was not making) that a double socket can only represent a total load of 20A. How would you feel about a 20A switch in a spur to a double socket?
No worse than I would feel about a dobule socket supplied with a spur made of 20A rated cable or a double socket where the socket itself is only built to take 20A.
No they're not. It isn't a departure.
I agree - but, as I've said countless times, I'm amazed that double sockets "only built to take 20A" were ever allowed.
Per above comments, I have to agree with that, too. Whilst undoubtedly 'low risk', the situation in domestic environments is, of course, a 'gamble' - since the designer has no control over what gets plugged in, coupled with the fact that I feel sure that the great majority of the general public believe that 2 x 13A loads would be acceptable (should they have such loads to plug in). Problems resulting from a washing machine and tumble dryer plugged into the same double socket are, of course, far from unknown.
But as I've said countless times, they aren't!
Yes, I realise that but:
I take your point, but I don't think it's quite the same as most manifestations of diversity.
Given that the horse bolted decades ago, I think that might now almost do more harm than good - since millions of '20A tested' ones are going to still be in service for very many years, even if new '26A tested' ones appeared. The confusion might therefore be even greater, and we could not give generic advice that two large loads should not be plugged into the same double socket.
Same here. Some people used to claim that MK ones were, but the document to which I referred (albeit not dated) seems to contradict that. Current MK technical documentation is pretty ambiguous - it actually gives the 'rating' as '13A per socket outlet', whatever that means. In fact, whilst I can see ways of interpreting that as '13A total' or '26A total', it's not so obvious how it could be taken to mean, say, '20A total'!
One would presumably also have to do the same with a double one, for comparison?
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