AMD 2 - time to flex your credit cards?

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

I've started using radial circuits far more now than I ever did.... Ring circuits should have gone years ago.

There is a strange breed of electrician who follow the "blind leading the blind" concept often used by builders & DIY'ers...
Who for some reason assume Sockets MUST be on a ring!!!!!!!!!!!!???

Never understood why some people wire a shed/workshop via a mini CU with a 32A MCB feeding a ring supplying only two or three double sockets!!
WTF is that about ??? Oh yeah!! they are sockets so they have to be wired on a ring!!

I have often done a 32A ring for Kitchen / utilities...
with 20A radials for all other areas.. e.g. "rest of downstairs" & "one or two upstairs radials"..

Rings can be a right pain in the rear if you are asked to add an extra socket, but the nearest accessible socket is already a spur off a 32A ring!
But if it had of been a 4.0mm 32A radial or a 2.5mm 20A radial, then jobs an easy.. add on your new socket to nearest point!!

 

[Sidewinder]

Whilst AFDDs won’t detect witing arcs in the ring, they will in any spur & any connected devices or equipment.
The product standard for AFDDs doesn’t require any detection below 2.5 A either. Though I believe Electrium has gone down to 1.5 A in their devices.

 

[Murdoch]

I had my assessment last week and our assessor told me they definitely don’t work on ring mains, so it’s 4mm from now on

I think your assessor needs to do more research into the facts

https://hager.com/uk/support/regulations-18th-edition/arc-fault-detection-devices

That said, noting is going to convince me that these devices are nothing more than an expensive device , for hard pressed homeowners, that will increase profits for manufacturers ........... which competent decent sparks are going to have to try to justify .

 

[King Arthur]

There is a strange breed of electrician who follow the "blind leading the blind" concept often used by builders & DIY'ers...
Who for some reason assume Sockets MUST be on a ring!!!!!!!!!!!!???

Never understood why some people wire a shed/workshop via a mini CU with a 32A MCB feeding a ring supplying only two or three double sockets!!
WTF is that about ??? Oh yeah!! they are sockets so they have to be wired on a ring!!

I have often done a 32A ring for Kitchen / utilities...
with 20A radials for all other areas.. e.g. "rest of downstairs" & "one or two upstairs radials"..

Rings can be a right pain in the rear if you are asked to add an extra socket, but the nearest accessible socket is already a spur off a 32A ring!
But if it had of been a 4.0mm 32A radial or a 2.5mm 20A radial, then jobs an easy.. add on your new socket to nearest point!!

I entirely agree about hardly needing rings these days. Who really needs 32A capability outside of a kitchen these days for plug-in devices? Because I live in a old listed house, routing wires is a real pain and although there was a small ring upstairs it had very few sockets. When adding more it was difficult to maintain the ring so my electrician suggested using multiple spurs and down-rating the circuit to 20A at the CU. I've never had any tripping problems - even in my study that has 10 devices plugged into two socket strips!

 

[binky]

I had my assessment last week and our assessor told me they definitely don’t work on ring mains, so it’s 4mm from now on

trouble with 4mm is socket terminals seem to be shrinking! I've been running 20A 2.5mm circuits for quite a long time, only installing rings in kitchens / utility areas, and even that can be avoided with a few extra cable runs. I like radial ccts, it stops DiYers messing up rings.

 

[mort2376]

Spoken to Hager and Napit about AFDD today.

They will work on ring circuits, but they won't detect a broken ring.

In order to work the AFDD need a load so modern led lighting circuits probably won't need them.

Fixed appliances upto 32a is what's being rumoured. Part of the reason is they haven't got a bigger unit than 32a yet.

Still nothing as to recommended use or mandatory until the 28th.