30A fuse for Whole of house

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Hi Guys,
I have recently moved in to a house which needs a little bit of work, nothing major, just new kitchen and bathroom.

I have had a look at the fuse box and this is very dated. I am looking at getting the consumer unit updated and the kitchen rewired on its own radial circuit.
I have some electrical qualifications but not part P registered so will leave the installation to a qualified spark.

However when looking at the fuses i only seem to have one 30A fuse for both upstairs and down stairs. Will this cause an issue when the spark comes to rewire just the kitchen on its own circuit?

I remember from my training years ago that it was common practice to have a fuse for upstairs and a fuse for down stairs. Should I consider trying to get this rectified, which will probably involve a complete re-wire? Or is it ok as it is?

Many thanks for all advise.
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P.S the total floor area equals 74 square meters.
 
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trouble is I know that the wire goes from the CU to an upstairs socket then to the lounge socet down stairs then back up to another bedroom socket upstairs.

Therefore not sure the circuits could be devided up without a re-wire!

Could you explain how it could be done if it is possible.

Thanks
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as long as the circuits test OK then I'd probably leave it on one circuit, with an additional circuit for the kitchen.
 
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I would as londonboy says keep the socket as one circuit, providing they test out safe.
and kitchen can have it's own circuit, other than that you will need to start splitting downstairs and upstairs circuits up.
Which could lead to the whole plalce being rewired.
 
Thanks, that was my thought too.
If the upstairs was wired as a single circuit then yes I would have them split, but I cannot see a way of doing it the way it has been wired currently.

I don't want to go for a complete rewire as although the wiring is 30 years old, all seems to be in good condition. The only problem is the kitchen only has 3 sockets in it, hence the reason for a kitchen rewire when i install the new kitchen.

I was also going to change the bedroom sockets from single gang to double gang. I don't believe there should be any problem with this. From memory you can have as many sockets on a ring final circuit provided the floor area is no bigger than 100 square meters. Is that correct?

Many thanks for your advise.
 
You are correct in saying the 100 sq metres.

Hopefully your electrician when he tests the circuit, doesnt find any problems :!:
 
You can have as many sockets on ring final circuit, providing the sockets are on the ring, this may mean extending the circuit. Only one socket outlet (single or double) per spur or a FCU can be connected then you can add more socket outlets.
You could also ask the electrician if there was anyway that he could split the ring circuit serving the up and downstairs sockets and create two radials (one up and one down) this would depend on the way the circuits are run and the area covered.
 
I hope the electrician won't find any problems too. I have ahad a good look around using my previous training to 16th edition and all looks to be ok.

I don't think the circuits can be split as the ring serves one upstairs circuit first then a downstairs circuit then another upstairs circuit. I have had to take a floorboard up for another reason and I can see the wire runs for the first three sockets so thats how I know.

I will ask anyway as I think it would be better to have them on separate circuits. Although I believe it meets the regs.

Many thanks for all your help. Its put my mind at rest that worst case I can leave the ring final circuit serving both floors on one fuse if necessary. Obviously the Kitchen will be separate.
 
There is nothing in the current 17th editions, requiring up/downstairs sockets are on different circuits but it is good practise.
 
Also the 100 square meters stipulation is a historic requirement, i.e. it is no longer a requirement. Indeed the Corrigendum to BS 7671:2008 inserted the word "Historically" into the relevant Appendix.
 
Thanks for your help guys.

Time to get the electrician round! :)
 
I guess this means you can have a final ring circuit covering more than 100 square meters and on one fuse now then?
Obviously providing that the current protective device is rated correctly etc.
 
My house has two ring finals, both of which are split across upstairs and downstairs. In particular, the sockets in the kitchen are split 50/50, which given they tend to get a fair amount of load (kettle, dishwasher, washing machine etc) makes sense. Obviously if you have a dedicated kitchen ring this is a non issue.

Being a computer person, I've also found it very handy when doing any electrical work that by using a cheap UPS I can in general just swap my PCs' power over to the other circuit without having to find lots of extension leads to go upstairs / downstairs, as there's normally a socket on the other ring within reach.
 
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