Chimpchoker
Member
Hi folks,
Tis chimpchoker here and I often wondered why the Part P was introduced but one thing I've learnt from reading some of these posts on this forum shows exactly why electrics needed taking out of DIY hands. I know nowt about electrics but even I can see how stupid some of the questions are, hopefully mine arn't.
Anyway, here goes.
My house needs a full re wire of which, if I'm honest could have been done last year but lack of money ( near bancrupt) put paid to that. Anyway this last week my consumer unit has been tripping off on one particular 3 pin socket. It's a socket we don't usually use but i've been doing the ironing and it kept tripping when the iron needed to get hotter.
A sparky was in our street so I asked him to look at it and he said it looked ok and put the face plate back on and left.
Never thought anything more really blaming the iron until I used this plug again whilst the lights were on and it tripped the consumer unit again but the lights went out downstairs and three of the lights upstairs.
From what i, as a novice can estimate is the socket in question is on one of the lighting circuits but even if that's not bad enough it trips all the lights downstairs and some of the lights upstairs whillst some of the sockets downstairs are still live when the single fuse (??) for "downstairs sockets" in the consumer panel is tripped to the "OFF" postion.
I was also refixing some floorboards and as one was loose I looked under it and there is a stranded wire that is bare and silver to look at. It's still in use as it can be traced to the area of a nearby socket. I think this could be the original earth wire from the house build in 1953.
What upsets me a great deal is that in the last year we got an electric over and hob installed and 3 downlighters in the bathroom by a qualified electrician ( I got his number from a trade supplier) and I've since found out that he had covered the downlighters with the loft insulation and they had no fire hoods on them ( and he drilled the middle of the wall to get the cooker cable from the consumer box).
I like to know how things work to help stop being ripped off so I am doing research hence my membership here but something I can't find out is the max number of 3 pin sockets allowed on a ring main.
Obviously the sockets ring main cannot be more than 100m2 in floor area, has to be 32A, 2.5mm twin and earth with each ring main having a seperate "fuse" in the consumer unit but the number of sockets allowed ??
I think it's down to the ampage drawn over the ciruit but I don't know what that is or how it's tested. I don't have any of the rules and regs. I've seen on some web site that it's advisable to have no more than 4 sockets in the living room, 3 in the dining room and 4 in the kitchen but build regs say less than all of those figures.
So the question after a long winded explination is this.
Is there a maximum amount of single or double sockets on a seperate ring main such as downstairs sockets, upstairs sockets, kitchen sockets etc.
TIA,
Chimpy.
Tis chimpchoker here and I often wondered why the Part P was introduced but one thing I've learnt from reading some of these posts on this forum shows exactly why electrics needed taking out of DIY hands. I know nowt about electrics but even I can see how stupid some of the questions are, hopefully mine arn't.
Anyway, here goes.
My house needs a full re wire of which, if I'm honest could have been done last year but lack of money ( near bancrupt) put paid to that. Anyway this last week my consumer unit has been tripping off on one particular 3 pin socket. It's a socket we don't usually use but i've been doing the ironing and it kept tripping when the iron needed to get hotter.
A sparky was in our street so I asked him to look at it and he said it looked ok and put the face plate back on and left.
Never thought anything more really blaming the iron until I used this plug again whilst the lights were on and it tripped the consumer unit again but the lights went out downstairs and three of the lights upstairs.
From what i, as a novice can estimate is the socket in question is on one of the lighting circuits but even if that's not bad enough it trips all the lights downstairs and some of the lights upstairs whillst some of the sockets downstairs are still live when the single fuse (??) for "downstairs sockets" in the consumer panel is tripped to the "OFF" postion.
I was also refixing some floorboards and as one was loose I looked under it and there is a stranded wire that is bare and silver to look at. It's still in use as it can be traced to the area of a nearby socket. I think this could be the original earth wire from the house build in 1953.
What upsets me a great deal is that in the last year we got an electric over and hob installed and 3 downlighters in the bathroom by a qualified electrician ( I got his number from a trade supplier) and I've since found out that he had covered the downlighters with the loft insulation and they had no fire hoods on them ( and he drilled the middle of the wall to get the cooker cable from the consumer box).
I like to know how things work to help stop being ripped off so I am doing research hence my membership here but something I can't find out is the max number of 3 pin sockets allowed on a ring main.
Obviously the sockets ring main cannot be more than 100m2 in floor area, has to be 32A, 2.5mm twin and earth with each ring main having a seperate "fuse" in the consumer unit but the number of sockets allowed ??
I think it's down to the ampage drawn over the ciruit but I don't know what that is or how it's tested. I don't have any of the rules and regs. I've seen on some web site that it's advisable to have no more than 4 sockets in the living room, 3 in the dining room and 4 in the kitchen but build regs say less than all of those figures.
So the question after a long winded explination is this.
Is there a maximum amount of single or double sockets on a seperate ring main such as downstairs sockets, upstairs sockets, kitchen sockets etc.
TIA,
Chimpy.
