Recent rewire worries...

[Josh44]

I bought a house this summer which I had previously rented and one of the first things I wanted to do was to have it rewired.

I've noticed a couple of issues which I wanted advice on before going back to the installers (if at all)....


1) There seems to be quite a few spurred sockets, mostly where sockets are back to back with a room wall dividing - I can understand it was easier to do it that way but am I likely to encounter issues if I ever want to add an additional socket etc in the future?

2) C/U clearly marks a up and down socket ring yet I found one double socket downstairs on the upstairs ring, decorator got hell of a shock! - any cause for concern now I know its there?

3) The biggie - I wanted to replace an upstairs socket with one with USB fronts.
The socket has two sets of wiring going in and a third which I assumed was a spur elsewhere.

I turned off the upstairs sockets at the C/U but only 2 of the 3 cables in the box went dead (tested with a pen tester), the third (assumed spur) was still live - it was only when I turned switched one side of c/u (which was for cooker circuit and downstairs light) did it go dead - this worries me the most!

Any advice appreciated

thanks!

 

[ericmark]

I bought a house this summer which I had previously rented and one of the first things I wanted to do was to have it rewired.

I've noticed a couple of issues which I wanted advice on before going back to the installers (if at all)....


1) There seems to be quite a few spurred sockets, mostly where sockets are back to back with a room wall dividing - I can understand it was easier to do it that way but am I likely to encounter issues if I ever want to add an additional socket etc in the future?

Minor would not worry about it.

2) C/U clearly marks a up and down socket ring yet I found one double socket downstairs on the upstairs ring, decorator got hell of a shock! - any cause for concern now I know its there?

Minor in some ways good as if you have something which trips the RCD being able to connect to a different RCD is easy way to find fault.

3) The biggie - I wanted to replace an upstairs socket with one with USB fronts.
The socket has two sets of wiring going in and a third which I assumed was a spur elsewhere.

I turned off the upstairs sockets at the C/U but only 2 of the 3 cables in the box went dead (tested with a pen tester), the third (assumed spur) was still live - it was only when I turned switched one side of c/u (which was for cooker circuit and downstairs light) did it go dead - this worries me the most!

Any advice appreciated

thanks!

That would also upset me. OK a pen tester is not so good at testing and it may be all OK. But it would prompt me to look further.

So nitty gritty bit. Either you buy test gear or you hire some one with the test gear. No good having all the gear and no idea how to use it so how much DIY are you thinking about? Also if the installer has made a mistake you want some one of good electrical standing to say what has been found. Plus if a genuine mistake maybe the installer will fix FOC. So likely first thing is ask installer if that fails then start looking else where.

 

[sparkwright]

1) Lazy way of doing things. Though sometimes convenient to do so occasionally, there's often no need to - and yes it does cause complications later when extra sockets are needed.

2) Again, lazy or more conveniebt way of wiring. Allowed, but ideally should be labelled at consumer unit. Decorator or anyone else should not assume something is dead though - he should have checked first.

3) This could very well be induction. Have experienced this many times - and as you say the pen tester finally stops glowing when all or one side of the consumer unit is turned off.

Pen testers are ok as a rough guide, but shouldn't relied upon as a sole means of testing.

You need a proper two probe tester or multimeter to confirm if the wiring is correct.

If the socket in question is connected back up, you could plug a table lamp in, and confirm that only one circuit breaker will turn it off.

 

[Josh44]

1) Lazy way of doing things. Though sometimes convenient to do so occasionally, there's often no need to - and yes it does cause complications later when extra sockets are needed.

2) Again, lazy or more conveniebt way of wiring. Allowed, but ideally should be labelled at consumer unit. Decorator or anyone else should not assume something is dead though - he should have checked first.

3) This could very well be induction. Have experienced this many times - and as you say the pen tester finally stops glowing when all or one side of the consumer unit is turned off.

Pen testers are ok as a rough guide, but shouldn't relied upon as a sole means of testing.

You need a proper two probe tester or multimeter to confirm if the wiring is correct.

If the socket in question is connected back up, you could plug a table lamp in, and confirm that only one circuit breaker will turn it off.

Thanks erickmark and sparkwright, appreciated.

With regard to #3 I will check the 'spur' cable tomorrow with a multimeter and report back.

Thanks guys