Ring or radial

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NWDS

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evening fellas, what do you prefer 4mm T&E radial or 2.5 T&E ring, bearing in mind that if a leg is faulty on a ring you then have a 32 amp supply on a 2.5 radial, what are your thoughts ??????????.

regards Iain

 
the reason I ask is that we are the only ones in europe using the ring and with harmonization I would have thought that we would follow, also you could have a fault on a ring and not be aware of it, if you have a neutral or line fault or cpc on a radial it will be more obvious to the public, any thoughts ????????

regards Iain

 
Plusses and minuses for both methods.

Have done a lot of emergency cover work - and I have had to split rings up into 2 radials due to cable breakdown/nails through cables etc on many occasions.

Arguably a ring gives you the chance to recover from this fault condition which a radial doesn't.

On the other hand - if I was doing a new build or a rewire I wouldn't be doing such a lousy job in the first place!

Fitting 2 x 4mm wires into a termination + spur could be a problem.

With a radial you know what fusing to use. In an existing installation it's hard to tell if a ring has a spur with several sockets on it.

Perhaps the safest and most repairable circuit is a ring with 20A MCB!

 
radial every time,

I think my views on this are quite well known on this forum,

so I wont even start to debate the shortcomings of a ring, and there are a multitude of them.

 
Plusses and minuses for both methods.Have done a lot of emergency cover work - and I have had to split rings up into 2 radials due to cable breakdown/nails through cables etc on many occasions.

Arguably a ring gives you the chance to recover from this fault condition which a radial doesn't.

On the other hand - if I was doing a new build or a rewire I wouldn't be doing such a lousy job in the first place!

Fitting 2 x 4mm wires into a termination + spur could be a problem.

With a radial you know what fusing to use. In an existing installation it's hard to tell if a ring has a spur with several sockets on it.

Perhaps the safest and most repairable circuit is a ring with 20A MCB!
Excellent post there Dave, my boys have applied the 20A MCB route many times.

The Godfather

 
I know it wasn`t originally an option, but my pref. is for 2.5 radial on 16/20; with the exception of the kitchen fixed appliances / utility which I`ll generally use a ring for. (primarily because 4mm can be such a cow to work with (no offence intended to apache!!!)

 
I know it wasn`t originally an option, but my pref. is for 2.5 radial on 16/20; with the exception of the kitchen fixed appliances / utility which I`ll generally use a ring for. (primarily because 4mm can be such a cow to work with (no offence intended to apache!!!)
PMSL :D

 
Well - I foresee all rings in the UK being wired in 4mm in the future - because of all this routed through insulation - derating factors. :(

 
Well - I foresee all rings in the UK being wired in 4mm in the future - because of all this routed through insulation - derating factors. :(
Mmm..

I been to some installations, wired back in the early sixties, and the cables (rings) looks far beefier than current 2.5mm T&E..

(Stranded cables I'm referring to)

:)

 
No - the UK are too thick - they will keep the Ring Main. :_|

 
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