And I don't, but as you say personal choice.
I prefer to still be able to extract, even if the cooker circuit is off.
Mixing ring mains in the kitchen
- Thread starter picbits
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I prefer to still be able to extract, even if the cooker circuit is off.
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Where does it say that?
The MK sockets I use say 13A per outlet, except for three gang which is 13A in total.
BS 1363
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No, but you can never rely on sockets being rated at anything more than 20A, so it's a bit illogical to say that's OK on a ring final but other 20A-rated accessories are not.
But following this approach then putting a washing machine and tumble dryer on the same double gang socket and switching them on at the same time - is wrong?
I disagree and a blanket ban of having two 13A rated devices on the same double gang socket is illogical.
The 20A standard for sockets is set for continuous use with a minimum of 4hrs and maximum of 8hrs and with a maximum rise in temperature - I cannot remember the exact number but it must be close to the 70° temperature of the cable.
In the long distant past I'm sure I read that the likes of MK probably meet the target 20A target indefinitely, and only with continuous exposure to higher rates for very long periods of time, certainly more than 8hrs do problems of heat degradation start to occur.
But there aren't that many domestic situations (apart from a cannabis farm
) that you will have a continuous 26A load. Even the washing machine/tumble dryer example given above will rarely, if ever, breach the 20A standard.
The problem with an arrangement of grid switches is that it concentrates all of the load into a single point - the very thing that a ring circuit is not designed for.
It also introduces unnecessary extra fuses, additional points of failure and increases the cost & complexity of installation.
You already have this - it's the big red switch in the consumer unit.
For maintenance of a single appliance, you unplug it from the socket outlet.
Yes, but the nature of kitchen rings is that such a bank of grid switches is quite likely to be near the mid-point of the ring - and having all loads concentrated at (or near to) the centre point is really the best possible situation for a ring circuit, isn't it?
Kind Regards, John
Could be.
Maybe it is, but ignoring what the standard requires and refusing to accept it because it is illogical is worse than illogical itself - it is mad.
Be that as it may....
Quite possibly.
And as you observe, there's nothing to stop Acme Electrical making a DSO which can handle 26A indefinitely, and still keep your beer cold. But from a design POV you may not assume that a generic DSO can handle more than 20A. Which is the point I was making in relation to the 20A rating of grid accessories.
And another thing you may not do is to interpolate a time for which a generic DSO will cope with 26A.But there aren't that many domestic situations (apart from a cannabis farm
You may be recalling the following, allegedly from some MK catalogue (I've never found the original) which I found quoted in the IET forum in late 2009 and have posted here a few times...
This is more-or-less consistent with what you said (19.5A 'indefinitely'), although it is not clear what 'relatively short period' will result in 'heat and mechanical stresses' if current increases to 'slightly more' than 19.5A.MK catalogue allegedly said:
I agree that one would not really expect that 26A would often be drawn for long enough, in domestic situations, to do any harm - but we have seen a good few reports (some with pics) of what may have happened because of running two 'high current loads' off one double socket. I have to say that, particularly given that such issues are most likely to arise in 'aesthetically less important' places (like utility rooms), I tend to use single sockets on a "why not?" basis.
Kind Regards, John
That's like saying that legislation requiring the outside of a kettle to get to no more than x°C when used to boil a full load makes it illegal for it to get to less.MK allegedly put a load of b****cks in their catalogue when they said:
That doesn't seem a valid analogy, but I do agree that MK's wording was very poor. Presumably what they meant to say (as you yourself have recently written) was that double sockets manufactured to comply with BS1363 could not be guaranteed to be able to safely operate at 26A total load.
Kind Regards, John
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