dodgy bedside lighting

[kettlefish]

Hello everyone

This is my first post. I'd normally have a good look through the forums before asking, but I've a quite a specific question, so sorry about jumping straight in with a new topic.

Basically a mate of mine asked me to change some bedside lights, that have been in his bedroom ever since he bought his house. He's never used them, cause of the position of his bed, but his lass is pregnant so they are doing it up, and as I don't mind changing the odd light fitting he asked me. I'm not a sparky (as I'm sure you can tell) so I thought I'd see if anyone could give me a bit of advice.

What I found has me a bit worried. The lights are wired directly to a 13amp socket on the same wall, the cable runs diagonally up to a switch and onto the lights from there.

So my concerns are simple, firstly I'm pretty sure lights shouldn't be directly wired to the sockets ring main, and secondly I'm certain cables aren't supposed to go diagonally up the wall.

So basically what I'm proposing to him is to disconnect the diagonal cable at both ends (I can't get it out as it's filled in with something very hard!), then chase a new channel vertically down from the switch to the skirting board. Bring the cable out of the wall at that point, taking it along the skirting with cable clips to a plug, with a 3 amp fuse.

So my question is, am I correct about the way it is at the moment being a bit dodgy, and does the way I'm thinking of doing it sound OK.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give

 

[ban-all-sheds]

firstly I'm pretty sure lights shouldn't be directly wired to the sockets ring main, and secondly I'm certain cables aren't supposed to go diagonally up the wall.

Right on both counts, and the latter has been known to get people killed.

Bring the cable out of the wall at that point, taking it along the skirting with cable clips to a plug, with a 3 amp fuse.

Tacky.

Drop the cable vertically to an FCU with a 3A fuse, wire that as a spur with a concealed cable running horizontally to the socket, or directly onto the ring.

 

[kettlefish]

Thanks for the quick reply.

didn't think of using a FCU. I'll do that, cause it's a much better idea.

Thanks again

 

[comms]

And dont forget you'll have to provide rcd protection to the circuit aswel (if it's not already there).
Then you'll have to test it.

 

[ColJack]

is it one switch for both lights, of one for each?

you can only have one FCU spured from a socket..