Converting single socket to double socket outlet

[levstar]

Hi many of my rooms have one single socket in them. I am in the process of converting these to double socket outlets. However in some cases the twin and earth from the back box is quite short and as a result I think I am going to struggle with at least one of these reaching the termination points on the double socket.

As a result I was wondering if there was a preferred simple option to overcome this:

Crimping or soldering to extend the cable?
Converting the single socket to a FCU and running the double socket off of the FCU (allowing for more than one double socket to be added).

Your thoughts / advise would be appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[Aragorn84]

crimping or chockblocks is fine.

 

[JohnW2]

As a result I was wondering if there was a preferred simple option to overcome this:
Crimping or soldering to extend the cable?
Converting the single socket to a FCU and running the double socket off of the FCU (allowing for more than one double socket to be added).

As has been said, crimping or chockblocks to extend the conductors would be one option.

As for your second option, that would be OK if (assuming its a ring circuit) you were certain that the current single socket was part of a ring (and not itself already a spur from a ring). In that situation, a variant to what you suggested would be to leave the single socket as it is and take a spur off that to one nearby (single or double) socket.

Kind Regards, John

 

[EFLImpudence]

Have you treated the existing box as the centre of your new double?

 

[levstar]

Thanks guys, it is indeed part of the ring final.

I am also centering the new double to the centre of the existing location of the single back box, however all conductors have been left so short that you can only just connect them to the the single outlet. The new double outlets terminals are further apart and I don't think they will stretch.

I am thinking maybe a choc bloc may make life easier.

 

[Iggifer]

You might have different luck with a different brand of socket, not all manufacturers put terminals in the same place - I always try and leave plenty of slack to account for this when installing sockets

Schneider do a white socket outlet (I assume other styles are the same) where the live and neutral are really close together one one side of the socket (as if it were a single and then the earth is over the other side - you might only need to crimp/joint one cable then.

 

[phatboy]

Maybe as a longer term plan, you should consider a re-wire. An installation with just 1 socket per room is very old, and clearly not really fit for purpose in our 21st century world!

 

[Iggifer]

Maybe as a longer term plan, you should consider a re-wire. An installation with just 1 socket per room is very old, and clearly not really fit for purpose in our 21st century world!

I totally mis read that bit, I skimmed it and read most of his rooms have single sockets plural.

Surely any house wired in T+E would have more than one socket per room? I know if I had one socket per room that would have been rectified long ago.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

You can extend the cables in the backbox using suitably sized/rated connectors.
Or you could have more luck with a single to double socket converter, if you don't mind the socket outlet be a little proud of the wall surface.
Also if the walls are not of a solid construction, there maybe a little slack in the cables.

 

[levstar]

Thanks for all the options here. Just to clarify the paperwork I got with the house states the installation dates back to 1998. There are many outlets downstairs and in the master bedroom, however all other rooms seem to only have one single outlet.

From the advise given can I clarify best practice when using choc blocks:

Is it ok to bunch the lives in one block, neutrals in one block and CPC and present one cable to the socket outlet - or will this create a hotspot?

Is it better to have individual blocks terminated to each conductor and present to cables to the socket outlet.

Or is there not real preference due to the length of cable in question.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

If it is a ring final circuit, I would terminate the conductors as a ring, so extend each conductor individually.

Once you have undertaken this work, it would good practise to prove the work you have undertaken is compliant and safe.
So I would be expecting some testing to be taking place.

 

[flameport]

the paperwork I got with the house states the installation dates back to 1998. There are many outlets downstairs and in the master bedroom, however all other rooms seem to only have one single outlet.

While not impossible, it would be very unusual for an installation of that age to have single sockets, and only one per room.

If you add some photos of the sockets, wiring, consumer unit area etc., further info can be given about it's actual age.
Possible that downstairs was rewired and upstairs was not.

 

[JohnW2]

...the paperwork I got with the house states the installation dates back to 1998. There are many outlets downstairs and in the master bedroom, however all other rooms seem to only have one single outlet.

Just to be clear, are you therefore saying that it is just bedrooms (other than the master one) that have just one single socket? How many such bedrooms are we talking about?

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

If it is a ring final circuit, I would terminate the conductors as a ring, so extend each conductor individually.

Whilst, in some senses, that is the ideal, it does increase the number of screwed joints and therefore probably slightly increases the risk that a loose connection could at some point in the future result in a (partial or complete) breaking of the ring.

What the OP proposed is effectively using the connector block as a JB and constituting the socket as a spur (2 or 3 inches long) from that 'JB'. That would be compliant with regs and I must say that if I were going to solve his problem by extending conductors (which I probably wouldn't) I might well be tempted/inclined to take that approach.

Kind Regards, John

 

[levstar]

Hi 2 Bedrooms have one single socket only and another has one single socket on one wall and one single socket on another. However one bedroom that only has one single socket does have a fitted wardrobe on the main wall an I have suspicions that there is a socket outlet behind there (as there is a tv aerial coax within the pelmet of the wardrobe).

Thanks for the advise as suggested I have been looking at other socket outlets that have terminal connections closer together as this may provide a neater solution.

This had led me to another query (Not sure if this should be a new thread), I have found a double outlet that may work and it also has USB charging outlets. If for any reason I went down the unfused spur route can these type of outlet be used, i.e are they still classed a double socket outlet therby conforming to the one single or one double outlet as an unfused spur?