Hall/landing lights

[oldbutnotdead]

Having a bit of a rejig- planning to add intermediate switches and the luxury facility of being able to switch hall light on/off from the top of the stairs and landing light on/off from the bottom of the stairs (all existing circuits by the way).

Question- is it current best practise to have the hall and landing lights on the same MCB (label at CU would be downstairs + landing lights for example) or to keep the downstairs/upstairs split (so the switches above would have 2 circuits present & thus need labelling). Did a search and found some 8 year old similar queries- answer was mostly keep the split & label the switch but things may have changed since then.

Ta

 

[bernardgreen]

Stairs in darkness are a hazard. Hence having lights on separate MCBs and RCDs is a good idea as then two faults are needed to lose all lights on the stairs.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

The safest method with regards to safe isolation would be to have both on the same circuit but there is no set ruling on it. I generally have them split (up/downstairs) and remark on this on certs and notice at board/breakers. Therefore you are not in complete darkness in the stair area should one circuit fail.

 

[Iggifer]

It's up to you really. It can be done numerous ways
- up/down on separate circuits (traditional way - usually no label, but a label is best)
- up/down different circuits - two switches next to each other (2 x 1G switch)
- landing light fed from downstairs lights

 

[ericmark]

I have all lights on the same MCB. The landing light is a HF fluorescent with battery back-up mainly because I got it cheap. But yes in the centre of the house having battery back-up is a good idea so stairs are never in darkness.

The lights got daft. The main problem was trying to light large areas with spot lights and only way was to have loads so house heated by the lights. With the ceiling rose doubling as a junction box and only rated at 6A to get the extra power for the planetarium lights one had to split it into circuits. However there was a major problem with two way switching.

It was often the case the person who split the lights had not a clue what they were doing and ended up with the stairs lighting being supplied from two different circuits. This has always been against the rules but until we started to RCD protect the lights many did not realise the error. So only option is to combine again to one MCB having 2 MCB's on the same RCD still breaks the shared neutral rules. It's called shared neutral but in real terms it was the line which was shared.

So with LED lighting no longer having a high demand moving back to a single MCB is not a problem. The idea with twin RCD's was every room will have sockets and lights from a different RCD so reading and standard lamps will not fail at the same time as ceiling lamps. However unless you use reading lamps the idea does not work.

So step one is find out how many cables between the two way switches. If only two then no option all lights on same circuit. If three then you could split but split needs to be same as sockets so if sockets split side to side than lights need splitting side to side. The existing wiring may simply not allow this split. To my mind far easier to fit emergency lights than change wiring and even in a general power cut emergency lights still work.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Thanks all. Think I'll keep the upstairs/downstairs split and label the CU.

Ericmark- interesting post, limited scope for emergency lighting when main lighting is an LED GLS on a pendant but point taken and something I may now look at. In terms of existing wiring, the only bit of the existing wiring I'm retaining untouched is the leg from CU to first of many bakelite junction boxes under the frigging floorboards (yes it is one of those houses)- will be redoing it all so that joints are accessible. The CU is far more modern than the installation accessories methinks.......

 

[ericmark]

With my emergency light the control gear and batteries are in the loft. The lamp is a standard 18W fluorescent tube. The main reason for fitting was every time I opened the loft lid I would hit the old pendent lamp and the bulb would blow. The fluorescent is tight onto the ceiling so is not hit by ladder. But since fitting it has been very handy. Should the RCD trip the light comes on showing me it has tripped before the freezer or fridge is effected.

 

[bernardgreen]

In my last house the Emergency Light was on the stairs. As Eric said it is a good indication of power failure.