One Ring Circuit for the whole house

[andemz]

Well, not the whole house but this is my question.

I've got the boys in, taking all of the old wiring for the whole house and chasing out for the sparky to come and do first fix. I popped up this afternoon to find that the upstairs bedrooms and downstairs living room are all on one circuit. the kitchen and dining room are on their own circuit.

Do you think it is likely that the sparky will put the living room and bedrooms on one circuit, as all of the plugs in the living room are lined up with the ones upstairs, which makes it, i guess, to drop the cables in....... or should the bedrooms and and living room be on separate ones. its a ex LA house so this was previously done by the council.

Sparky is currently in africa, so you are my second option..........

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

I'd have kitchen, downstairs and upstairs all on separate circuits.

 

[andemz]

Yes, i think i would, but i was wondering if there are any regs to stop somebody putting bedroom and living room circuits on one ring. i guess there would be a total of 11 double sockets - bedroom load would be negligible, i guess so would the living room.......

 

[AndyPRK]

main thing is that the kitchen is seperate to most other rooms.

Are they using RCBO's in the CU ?

 

[andemz]

The sparky said he is fitting a 17th edition consumer unit, so i guess that is a yes.

 

[333rocky333]

Similar to the rcd tripping of an Rcd mainswitch, if an mcb tripping could cause too much inconvenience to you, then I would say it would contravene the Regs.
The layout of the routes may be for ease of wiring, without damaging too much floor.
He still may be wiring seperate rings.
Some builds are apparently wired, so the back up and down is seperate to front up and down thus if it trips you have some power left up and down.
Kitchen really should be seperate though.

Edit
Theres also a 100sg /metre, rule of thumb size limit for Rings in Appendix 15

 

[andemz]

Thanks, it was just a question...... It seems to make more sense if they were on two separate rings.

 

[ericmark]

I have taken part in many a heated debate as to how a house should be split for ring mains.

One up and one down is traditional but one tends to have higher current using equipment downstairs and splitting side to side does even out load to each ring and makes the ring shorter so gives better earth loop impedance readings.

However leave the traditional method and people are likely to make mistakes and isolate wrong circuit. Of course to isolate properly both line and neutral should be isolated and opening a single MCB will not do that.

Should one use a dedicated ring for a kitchen or should one split the load over a few circuits which could also help maintaining supply to fridge freezer and it goes on and on.

There is no definitive answer and it is up to the designer to consider the pro and cons and select best for the house in question. And this is the point. You ask electrician doing the job no good asking here.

One main consideration which is really for you as it will impact on cost is RCD v RCBO to me having lived in a house with duel RCD's for near 20 years I would always say RCBO unless on TT system. It is pain to have to reset because PC is switched on or other appliance with filters and to also lose lighting. (I do have emergency lights but only last for around 5 hours) So look at cost and consider if you want to be re-setting RCD, or if RCBO is worth extra money. I would say yes.

TT is different as twin pole is required and twin pole RCBO's would be very expensive so really either 100ma RCD and 30ma RCBO's or twin 30ma RCD and latter then has more going for it.

OK regulations say it should not trip too often but how before house is wired can anyone predict how often it will trip I don't know. My house has changed over the years. At start maybe once a year. As kids got older it got to a stage of once a week or more sometimes 2 to 3 times a day when loads of PC's in house. Now they have left around one a month again in the main when switching a PC on.

When using RCBO's the way the house is split will determine how many PC's on one circuit. My sister's house has side to side split from new and she has less problems to me with random split. Mainly due to cable length I guess.

Radials to fridge/freezer using RCBO seems good but if atmospheric storm causes them to trip will you notice?

 

[andemz]

Thanks for the post eric mark. The system is PME, it is for rent, i think it will be up down split but i'll see what the spark says on that one...... I think it will be an rcd board but we'll see again

 

[wingcoax]

Did a re-wire 30 years ago in south wales, split lighting, three ring mains(10 sockets in kitchen) cb's on all circuits and leccy board said when he came to connect tails "why have you put so many circuits in"?

 

[andemz]

Thanks for all the people who replied...... i guess i'll see what the sparky says once he gets back, i think it is a case of just keeping this installation simple, its only a small house and so i'll leave it up to the sparky to decide.

Thanks again all

 

[holmslaw]

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[Taylortwocities]