Strabge circuit

scotty25 · Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 3:21 pm Post Subject: Strabge circuit

Hi all,

My house is short of sockets everywhere. The worst place is the living room/hallway area where there is one double and the dining room where there is a single. I was going to cut into the circuit and add more sockets but when I checked these sockets to see what circuit type I have I discovered that they were both only fed by one cable. Could that mean they are spurs from upstairs?
Another possible way into the circuit is the kitchen. Would that be on a separate downstairs circuit to the sockets already mentioned?
Ultimately I want to add at least another 2 doubles in the lounge and another double in the dining area. What is the best way to do this?

Any advice would be great.

Thanks

Scott

dingbat · Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 4:25 pm Post Subject: Re: Strabge circuit

scotty25 wrote:

My house is short of sockets everywhere.

Rewire.

Quote:

...when I checked these sockets to see what circuit type I have I discovered that they were both only fed by one cable. Could that mean they are spurs from upstairs?

Possibly. Or equally possibly they could be fed via junction boxes. Rewire

Quote:

Another possible way into the circuit is the kitchen. Would that be on a separate downstairs circuit to the sockets already mentioned?

No idea. I don't live there. But, if you can't work this out for yourself I very much doubt whether you should be dabbling.

Quote:

Any advice would be great.

Rewire

If you have very few sockets I strongly suspect you also won't have the required RCD protection, so you'll be needing to include this and the best way to do it is to change your consumer unit. This is not a DIY job... why not get some professional opinions from local electricians.

Taylortwocities · Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 4:50 pm Post Subject:

Scotty, can you tell us what size fuse you have inyour fuseboard feeding the socket circuits. Is it 30amp or 15amp (or something else).
You may have radial circuits not a ring final. Will make a difference to the approach.

TTC

scotty25 · Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:27 pm Post Subject: Strange circuit

I have now checked the kitchen circuit and can now determine what is going on.
Every socket in the house is on the same circuit. I have not done a continuity test to determine whether or not it is a ring main or not yet or radial circuit. I started pulling the fuses one at a time to see what went off. I pulled one 30 and everything socket in the house was dead.
I pulled the next 30 and the cooker control panel went dead. Next was a 15 which had no effect anywhere I could see and finally the last one was for the lighting which was for the whole house.
IS it usual for houses to have one circuit for lighting and one for sockets?
There are some real dodgy attempts at electrics in this house which are really dangerous so Im definately gonna get a pro in to see what on earth is going on!!! I'm not going to attempt anything!!

Thanks all for your replies

Scott

dingbat · Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:47 pm Post Subject: Re: Strange circuit

scotty25 wrote:

Next was a 15 which had no effect anywhere I could see...

That is/was for your immersion heater. If you no longer have an immersion heater you may still have a live switch inside the old airing cupboard, or this circuit may now be supplying a c/h boiler.

Anyway, what you have is the absolutely normal, bog-standard circuit arrangement from thirty-plus years ago. It will almost certainly be easier to rewire than extend.

scotty25 · Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 6:38 pm Post Subject:

Its certainly a relief to know that my house is the norm.

Many thanks for everyone's advice.