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Engage an electrician to do some testing ,and corrective work.
No. They have mistakenly done this to the two ring final circuits.
The single socket is not on the ring.
Which MCB is the one that feeds the single socket?
Ring finals very much in use today. It’s what most electricians install. I’m a bit lost here. There are two breakers with green dots, and I can only see two conductors in the bottom of both.Would a house as young as mine use the old ring method? Wouldnt this be radial? The MCB that feeds the single socket is the MCB marked with green dot that has 3 red Live wires coming out of it.
I think it is a mistake.Correct but i'm not sure if this is a mistake as they've intentionally done it to every socket
Quite possibly.EXCEPT the single socket that comes directly off the consumer unit which i think must have been done by another electrician as it only uses one wire instead of the two and comes off a single MCB.
The norm in the UK is to wire sockets in rings with a 32A (or 30A on older equipment) MCB and 2.5mm² cable. The ring starts from the breaker loops round all the sockets on the circuit and then returns to the breaker.It how i'd have done it and how i'd expect it to be done.
pstairs" MCB and "downstairs" MCB. Also don't trust the labelling as this was done by a family friend over 5 years ago who isn't a qualified electrician.
Ring finals very much in use today. It’s what most electricians install. I’m a bit lost here. There are two breakers with green dots, and I can only see two conductors in the bottom of both.
can you explain so I can understand please?
I think it is a mistake.
Such a mistake generally screws up two rings and it seems you only have two rings (upstairs and downstairs).
Quite possibly.
The norm in the UK is to wire sockets in rings with a 32A (or 30A on older equipment) MCB and 2.5mm² cable. The ring starts from the breaker loops round all the sockets on the circuit and then returns to the breaker.
It is also possible to have circuits that do not loop back on themselves (known as "radial" circuits) but on such circuits either a larger cable or a smaller breaker is needed.
Fixing the cross-connection is fairly simple, disconnect the wires from the breakers, use a multimeter to test end to end continuity to work on which cables belong together and then re-connect to the breakers.
Could you tell us the current ratings of the breakers (From some searching I belive on your breakers they are embossed on the handles, but your photo is not good enough to reliably read them) and what you belive each breaker actually does?
There are a couple of things that are ringing alarm bells.
1. You say whoever did this was not an electrician, so it's very likely that they may not have followed applicable regs and that no testing was done at all during installation.
2. You say this was installed "over 5 years ago", but the work looks much older, so either your "over 5 years" actually means more like "25-30 years" or the work was done using old materials in a manner that was not to current regs at the time. The standard printed on the front was withdrawn in 1994. Furthermore if this board was installed after 2008 or so (not sure of the exact date) then it likely did not comply with the RCD requirements at the time of installation. Furthermore all the wiring is red/black which was replaced with brown/blue around 2004, that can happen when a new CU is installed on old wiring but the fact that one circuit seems to be unlabled suggests that said circuit was installed after the CU.
Sooo.... the single socket that you say was installed at a later date is a different single socket to the one you first referred to (the one you use for soldering iron)?
Could you confirm that you have two ring final circuits (the soldering iron socket is on one of these) & a single socket radial circuit connected to one of the 32A ring final MCBs?
The standard continuity test!
Or the standard figure of 8 test
Even if done, Would they not have been done prior to connecting into the Mcbs and could Pass fine, as when installed likely all 7 circuits if tested were loose in the board.The standard continuity test!
Or the standard figure of 8 test
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