Should an electrical test show this

[nickb69]

We recently purchased a house. The owners got a Part P qualified electrician to test the electrics.

If you total up the total wattage on the lighting circuit it is over 1200w. Should this have been reported in the test and if so what can be done.

I know that you would never have all the lights on at one time, but is this still wrong.

Thanks

 

[Steve]

no its fine.

 

[nickb69]

Having said that what is the maximum wattage that can be connected to the circuit bearing in mind they will not all be on at once.

With a quick add up I would say the total is 2000w connected to one 6amp mcb.

Thanks

 

[JohnD]

6Amp x 240V = 1440Watt.
With a typical mix of 100W and 60W lamps that's about 20.

There are some diversity rules but you would do better to ask yourself what is the max load you expect.

I hope you will be getting some compact fluorescents to save energy.

You could have about 100 lamps if you did.

If you have a lot of lamps on the circuit I deduce that you do not have separate lighting circuits for upstairs and down. This is always preferable. If you have a lot of spotlights then you will have the MCB tripping from time to time when the spots blow.

 

[Steve]

although it is bad practise to overload a lighting circuit, as you say, they wont all be on at once, and its giving you no problems as it is. And MCBs can be overloaded for a while anyway.

 

[plugwash]

The way i'd look at it is to assume that all rooms will be lit at once (they probablly will when there are a lot of people in the house) and then look at each room individually to figure out its maximum normal load.