Maximum Amperage of Flat 'RCD?'

Morning,

In my flat is has an electric box (Rcd I believe) where it is a small box with a main switch on one side and within the box there are 4 little switches for cooker, central heating, sockets and lighting.

On the bottom of the box it states the maximum amperage is 60, From that maximum amperage can anybody make a calculated guess on what 'era' the electrical installation is from.

The property is a first floor flat and I believe built late 70's, so will 60 amps suffice in this day and age of gizmo's and gadgets as I've heard typical installations are normally 100amps

Regards

BW

ben85 said:

In my flat is has an electric box (Rcd I believe) where it is a small box with a main switch on one side and within the box there are 4 little switches for cooker, central heating, sockets and lighting.

Click to expand...

4 little switches = mini circuit breakers (fuses)
They will have amp ratings on them, I suspect:-

Cooker= 40 amp
ch= 6 or 10 amp
skts = 32 amp
lighting = 6 amp

ben85 said:

On the bottom of the box it states the maximum amperage is 60, From that maximum amperage can anybody make a calculated guess on what 'era' the electrical installation is from.

Click to expand...

Difficult to tell without a picture

Maybe mid / late 80's

A flat tends not to require the same load as a house. So the real question is what is the mains supply in rated at. A typical purpose built (rather than converted) flat would have a 65 amp supply.

Guessing the next question (82 amp of MCB's v 65 amp supply) you need to research diversity. In simplicity diversity considers the fact that even through the potential is there to overload the main supply fuse it's unlikely that you would ever be able to use all circuits, at the same time to the maximum mcb loads. Take the cooker, if it is rated at 40 amp would the cooker ever use 40 amps of load (absolutely everything on full power at the same time)?

ben85 said:

The property is a first floor flat and I believe built late 70's, so will 60 amps suffice in this day and age of gizmo's and gadgets as I've heard typical installations are normally 100amps

Click to expand...

If you consider that wattage = amps x volts, if you have a board rated at 60 amps x 230v = 13,800 watts audit all electricals in the flat and it's near impossible to overload. Even if you did so, the mains fuse can take +40% of capacity for a period.

So to pop the mains head fuse you'd need to have in excess of 20,000 watts of power being used constant.


What you should be thinking about is that although the existing system can cope, it is a tad antiquated when considering either the 16th or 17th edition electrical regs.

No rcd or rcbo's for fast disconnect if a fault happens, and earth bonding is unlikely to have been done for gas / water services.

Hi,

Yes, I'm aware it's not the most technically advanced system, however I think it will suffice within my flat as I'm only planning to be there another 2.5 years from now.

If I was staying there for the longer term I've had a lovely brand new (rcd box?) put in with the safest and largest electrical capacity going, as I'm not though, and it's perfectly safe as it is, I'll stick with it, thanks for the information on the box anyway it was informative.

Also the cooker 'mini-fuse' is never on as the cooker gets electric from a normal plug in the kitchen, so will this allow me to use even more 'things' without it normally fusing or overloading (not planning to but surely not using that circuit gives more amps/power for another circuit.

Excuse my language, I don't know much about electrics!

Regards

BW

Regards

BW

ben85 said:

Hi,

Also the cooker 'mini-fuse' is never on as the cooker gets electric from a normal plug in the kitchen, so will this allow me to use even more 'things' without it normally fusing or overloading (not planning to but surely not using that circuit gives more amps/power for another circuit.

Click to expand...

If you have just 1 x socket circuit and the cooker (if all electric) is fed from the socket circuit there would be a issue with overloading that circuit.

I suspect the cooker is gas and that the controls are the electric use part ?

As for nah, not upgrading that's your choice. I'd suggest you consider a periodical inspection report (PIR approx £120) just to make sure everything is ok.

Reason being that if you sell in 3 years and the sale hangs on an electrical inspection which mentions various negative issues and you've gone down the DIY route of full decoration, new flooring etc all that work will be wasted since the purchaser will have to chase the walls, lift the floor etc to do the remedial works. Those remedial works will be paid for via you having to discount from your sale price.