help & advice please

scott04 · Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2004 10:07 pm Post Subject: help & advice please

i have one double socket only in a room , but require a further 3 (2single 1double ) to total 4 sockets my one socket has two wires going to it so it must be a ring right ?? can anyone give me any advice on how to do this job without going to an electrician as twice bitten !! do i chace the wire back to a junction box and then take the extra three wires from there or will i blow the place to bits ??please help thanks

breezer · Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2004 10:12 pm Post Subject:

is how its done, (it would be best if you could move one of the existing cables to a new socket, then "loop" from there via other new sockets back to origonal)

you will need 2.5mm twin & earth.

but the big question is do you have a ring, or is that a radial.

to find out you will need a multi meter or an electrcian

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ban-all-sheds · Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2004 10:29 pm Post Subject: Re: help & advice please

It is probably a ring. Sockets usually are on a ring (but not always), and the fact that you have 2 cables means it almost certainly is. It's relatively easy to check - unplug or turn off any large loads (e.g. electric heaters, kitchen appliances on the ring), turn off the circuit by switching the breaker or removing the fuse, remove the wires from the socket, make sure that they aren't going to touch anything they shouldn't (temporarily putting them each into their own 3-strips of choc-block might be a good idea), turn the power back on, and use your multimeter (which of course you do have, don't you, as it is as essential a tool for working on electrics as a screwdriver is) to check that both live conductors are live. If they are, it's a ring, if they aren't then it's a damaged ring, or a radial, or a dodgy spur.

But now we come to something which worries me, which is that you don't appear to know how ring mains are wired, as you're talking about junction boxes, and an extra three cables. This is not the way to do it.

Do you actually know how ring final circuits are wired?

Should you be doing this yourself, or should you be getting an electrician in?

Also - what sort of room has only one socket? My immediate reaction is that unless it's a very small bedroom the wiring dates back many years. Do you know how old it is?

PS - why is it that whenever I am crafting a reply, breezer always nips in first whilst I'm still typing?

breezer · Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2004 10:32 pm Post Subject: Re: help & advice please

ban-all-sheds wrote:

PS - why is it that whenever I am crafting a reply, breezer always nips in first whilst I'm still typing?

17 minutes

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scott04 · Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2004 9:31 am Post Subject: a big big thanks to you both

thankyou for helping me with my problem (extra sockets ) in reply to your qestion no iam not an electrition iam a chef that can plaster ,and is ok with wood . so dont ask for a cake (unless in prison )ha! ha! but once again thankyou both !! and if you need any cooking tips please let me know scott