Adding an Additional Circuit

[Papa Qube]

Hi There

Can anyone advise on the best way of adding power to an attic conversion? At present my thinking is to go with ad addition ring (or radial) circuit, as I want to protect the area from the rest of the house; reasons for this is that the room will be my office, with 2 servers. Demand in the room should low, i.e. PCs and audio equipment (and maybe the obligatory kettle). There will also be a large number of sockets in the room, 10+, hence i do not want to go down adding a spur route.

There is space on my consumer to add the additional curcuit, but i am not sure about the lay of the land. I do not trust the builder to know either; great plasterer, but it is obvious that i know more than him. My unit already consists of:

2 x 32amps ringmains
1 x 32amps Cooker
1 x 32amps Shower
2 x 6amps lights
1 x 6amp Boiler.

Distance to the attic from the consumer unit is approx 30m, and the room itself has a footprint of 16 m sq.
Many thanks.

 

[Chad123]

Wire it on its own ring main in 2.5 T&E on a 32a mcb. This is the best way. Don't wire it on a radial if you have that many sockets as you could over load it.

 

[Papa Qube]

Thanks, that what I figuired.

I presume that it is OK to add another ring, to the existing 2, to the consumer unit?

 

[Steve]

Wire it on its own ring main in 2.5 T&E on a 32a mcb. This is the best way. Don't wire it on a radial if you have that many sockets as you could over load it.

I disagree. A 4mm² radial on a 32A MCB would be ideal here due to the distance to the first socket, and all the load being in one place. Two long runs of cable to the loft would be a waste. And the sockets needn't be RCD protected (and you shouldn't due to the IT equipment). I take it you have adequate ventilation for the IT equipment?

Do you know about part p? I guess if you're converting the loft BC are involved, but you must also tell them about the electrical side of things and they will inspect and certify.

 

[Papa Qube]

Hi there

Thanks for your response. I over estimated the distance well and truely, the distance to the first point is about 12m, not sure what i was thinking. Yes I had thought about the heat from servers, and have a special un-insulated area with vents and fans. However the servers are only small dell power edge towers, rather than a full rack mount setup. I hadn't thought about the use of non rcd fuse, but will now.

Given this would you still recommend the use of 4mm radial.

Thanks again.

 

[Steve]

Yes. There's not much point of a ring final in this situation.

 

[Papa Qube]

Thanks Crafty

 

[Adam_151]

Yes. There's not much point of a ring final in this situation.

Section 607?, possibly not enough kit there to make it strictly relevant atm, but you have to consider what might happen in the future

 

[RF Lighting]

Even if it was wired to comply with 607 you could still use a radial circuit with a supplementary earth.

 

[dingbat]

By far the easiest way to do a loft is to run a sub-main to a small consumer unit up there, then run whatever circuits you need. Then you have local isolation, separation of power and lighting circuits and the capacitry to add additional circuits if you wish, whatever the format.

 

[Papa Qube]

Thanks for the advice, useful to plan for the future and comply with 607. therefore i may go with my initial thoughts of 2.5 t&e ring ???