Spurring off a single socket in each room

[bobbleoff]

Hi. Moving into a house with only one socket in each of the three bedrooms. I need to have proper look once moved in but I know the consumer unit is new and believe wiring to be in good condition at time of install in recent years. Can anyone advise me if I can change single socket to double and then spur off that? I want to spur off each socket on ring main in bedrooms. Will not spur off a spur....Looking to take one socket in each room and turn into 2 double sockets in each room.

Thanks in advance

 

[Taylortwocities]

Change the single socket to double, no problem.

Adding more sockets may be, depending on how the circuit is wired.
If the original socket is part of a ring final, no problem
If the original socket is on a radial circuit, no problem
If the original socket is already a spur from a ring final then (as you say) you cannot add another socket as a spur. BUT you could replace the existing single socket for a fused connection unit and connect as many sockets as you like to the output of that.

Note: you haven't said what you plan these additional sockets for. Obviously you only add more sockets having first had a regard to what the existing loading is and what the additional load is likely to be.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Given that you will have to run a cable from the existing socket to the new one, why not run 2 cables and keep them all on the ring? (If it is a ring, which it probably is)

 

[bobbleoff]

Thanks. I do need to work out where we need power first. Was basing it on what they currently have in their rooms. Tv, console, tv box in one double, light and phone charging in other. I suppose depending on layout I could get away with double and fused extension if hidden from view. Thought id ask as if I need to channel out first I want to do before decorating. I take your point about maybe already being a spur from downstairs/elsewhere. I imagine that' quite tricky tracing cables under floor etc.

 

[jg321]

Agree with BAS. Having done this recently in most of my rooms when we moved in, it's pretty simple to extend the ring when you have the floorboards up. You can usually do it with one, or zero joins, rather than two, if you put the sockets in the right places.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Disagree with Bas. Absolutely pointless.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Please prove that it will never, ever, under any circumstances whatsoever, be better for the new sockets to not be spurs.

 

[EFLImpudence]

I could ask the converse.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

You could, but it doesn't work that way.

My position is justified by recognising that someone might want to make further changes in the future where a spurred socket would not allow them the same flexibility as one on the ring. I don't have to prove that those changes will be needed, it just has to be accepted that there is a non-zero probability that they will.

For your position to be justified, for you to assert that there is absolutely no point in extending the ring you have to be justified in saying that there is absolutely no chance that such changes will ever be required. You have to show that there is a zero probability that they will.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Here we go again.
@bobbleoff if this degenerates into the usual 3 pages of point scoring, please ignore.
If you get really fed up send me a PM or start a private conversation and I’ll advise.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

TTC - I suggest you take it up with EFLI, who was the one who started giving incorrect advice.

I cannot, and will not, accept responsibility for the fallout from challenging incorrect advice, and I cannot, and will not, allow it to go unchallenged for the sake of avoiding an argument.

This:

Absolutely pointless.

was simply wrong, and that must be articulated. No other course of action is acceptable.


3 pages of "point scoring", or indeed even a fraction of one page, can easily be avoided by EFLI proving that there is a zero probability of any circumstances arising in the future wherein the ring having been extended now would be beneficial. Or by him accepting that that cannot be proved, and that therefore "absolutely pointless" was incorrect.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Looking to take one socket in each room and turn into 2 double sockets in each room.

 

[Taylortwocities]

I suggest you take it up with EFLI, who was the one who started giving incorrect advice.

I cannot do that. I agree with him. There is nothing wrong with properly installed spurs.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

So can you prove that there will never, ever, at any time in the future, be a situation where it would have been better if the ring had been extended rather than a spur created?

We aren't talking here of what is more and what is less likely - EFLI used the word "absolutely". That does not admit of anything non-zero. The only way for you and him to be right is for there to be zero chance of it being better for the ring to have been extended. Not only one chance in a million, or a billion, or a trillion.

Zero.

How do you know that?

 

[securespark]

[Calls to Mrs Secure..."Darling? No need to bring me the popcorn after all..."]