House wired wierdly? And consumer unit question

After some testing in my new house, I've worked out that the sockets rather than being upstairs and downstairs, are in fact front and back.

Is this 'normal' at all? While it doesn't necessarily bother me, thinking practically, are there any issues with this? The only thing I can think of is if I need to isolate a whole floor, I have to isolate the whole house?

I'm yet to work out whether the cooker is on a separate fuse (hopefully) as well as the shower pump.


Secondly;

On my consumer unit, I have 5 circuit fuses, that are labelled as not protected by RCD. Number 3 is upstairs lighting, number 5 is downstairs. I don't know if the other 3 do anything.

Next to that I have 3 circuit fuses RCD protected. Number 1, currently unknown, number 2 is the front half of the house sockets, and number 3 the back half sockets.

I have room on the consumer unit for one more of each RCD protected and not.

Does this all sound normal? Are lights normally non RCD protected?

Thanks in advance for any advice


Edit: Oh, and lastly, is it possible to buy stickers for the consumer unit so I know which is which without referring to my notepad all the time?

Sounds fine.

Yeah you can get labels

Fordy81 said:

After some testing in my new house, I've worked out that the sockets rather than being upstairs and downstairs, are in fact front and back. Is this 'normal' at all?

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Not unusual.

Fordy81 said:

On my consumer unit, I have 5 circuit fuses, that are labelled as not protected by RCD. Number 3 is upstairs lighting, number 5 is downstairs. I don't know if the other 3 do anything.
Next to that I have 3 circuit fuses RCD protected. Number 1, currently unknown, number 2 is the front half of the house sockets, and number 3 the back half sockets.
Does this all sound normal? Are lights normally non RCD protected?

Click to expand...

It's not up to current standards/regulations, but it was a common arrangement in the past. A modern 'compliant system' would have two RCDs, which circuits split between the two. However, you are not under any obligation to bring the installation into compliance with current regs.

Fordy81 said:

Edit: Oh, and lastly, is it possible to buy stickers for the consumer unit so I know which is which without referring to my notepad all the time?

Click to expand...

It is - but what's wrong with plain sticky labels and a pen (or, to be more fancy, some computer-printable labels and a word-processor) - unless you are worried about 'beauty'?!

Kind Regards, John

Lights were not normally RCD protected up until a few years ago.

Fordy81 said:

After some testing in my new house, I've worked out that the sockets rather than being upstairs and downstairs, are in fact front and back.

Click to expand...

Could be that the property was original two, therefore two socket circuits, that serve both upstairs and down.

Fordy81 said:

Is this 'normal' at all?

Click to expand...

Not normal practise for a new installation, but does have it's advantages!

Fordy81 said:

While it doesn't necessarily bother me, thinking practically, are there any issues with this?

Click to expand...

No issues regarding safety, providing you prove isolation when doing work on either circuit, it would be beneficial to have sockets available on each level, if one circuit was to become faulty.

Fordy81 said:

The only thing I can think of is if I need to isolate a whole floor, I have to isolate the whole house?

Click to expand...

And when would that be necessary, unless you had a flood, then the location and height of the consumer unit and metering would also dictate issues.

Fordy81 said:

I'm yet to work out whether the cooker is on a separate fuse (hopefully) as well as the shower pump.

Click to expand...

Well you will need to investigate further to discover that.

Fordy81 said:

Secondly;
On my consumer unit, I have 5 circuit fuses, that are labelled as not protected by RCD. Number 3 is upstairs lighting, number 5 is downstairs. I don't know if the other 3 do anything.

Click to expand...

having a look inside would tell you if any conductors were connected, then you can investigate from thereon.

Fordy81 said:

Next to that I have 3 circuit fuses RCD protected. Number 1, currently unknown, number 2 is the front half of the house sockets, and number 3 the back half sockets.
I have room on the consumer unit for one more of each RCD protected and not.

Does this all sound normal? Are lights normally non RCD protected?

Click to expand...

They would be now, but they did not always require to be.

Fordy81 said:

Edit: Oh, and lastly, is it possible to buy stickers for the consumer unit so I know which is which without referring to my notepad all the time?

Click to expand...

You can buy them, you can also print them off and you could also stick a circuit chart up at the CU!

Thanks everyone.

Got no issue with writing them on, just never would fit them with my hand writing. lol

Does anyone know where I could purchase them?

Fordy81 said:

Does anyone know where I could purchase them?

Click to expand...

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=c...=122&ie=UTF-8#q=consumer+unit+labels&tbm=shop

My late sisters house in Flint was wired side to side and this resulted in less cable and as a result a better ELI so although not a common as up/down split it has many advantages and if re-wiring my house would consider it as an option.

Pre 2008 having circuits not RCD protected was normal. The problem is when extending the existing circuits they have to comply with 2008 regulations but unless altered they are OK.

If you want to upgrade to 2008 regulations the best option is to replace the non RCD protected circuits with RCBO's however these are longer than MCB's and will not fit in all consumer units.

Fordy81 said:

Edit: Oh, and lastly, is it possible to buy stickers for the consumer unit so I know which is which without referring to my notepad all the time?

Click to expand...

You might find they don't quite meet your needs as they are rather generic. I imagine you'll probably get things like "upstairs sockets" and "downstairs sockets". Not sure what you'll stick those on

Better solution would be to number each circuit and then make a nice little spreadsheet of what each number does and stick it next to the consumer unit (I mean like print it off, not place a USB stick next to the CU!).

I believe it in the case of large installations it's tradition to make the circuit descriptions as generic as possible to really annoying the building manager. We've had the kitchen trip out a couple of times at work and I've dragged the sparkies up to the dist board:

Gaffer> Hmm, well, that one's tripped. What does it say?
Best Boy> "General Sockets"
Gaffer> f****** h***!