Spur Question

Is it within building code to put in 2 sockets (effectively 4 plug points) coming from a spur? in the following kind of circuit diagram, bit hard to describe on here but i'll give it a go

RING MAIN------->SOCKET 1-------> SOCKET 2


I know its easy to wire but I had doubts as to whether this was within building regs or not . If not i'll have to put it on the ring main. which will cause major hassle

You should not spur from a spur.
What you can do is spur to a fused outlet then from the load side ,feed both your sockets as the combined load of both sockets can not exceed 13anps, and therefore not overload your 2.5mm cable.


Ring main-----fused outlet------socket-----socket.

First choice would be to add the extra sockets to the ring main,but if you just need the extra sockets for low power equipment (tv/video/table light games console)then the above solution would comply with the iee regs.

When you mention

Ring main-----fused outlet------socket-----socket

do you mean an RCD protected outlet?

do you mean an RCD protected outlet?

Click to expand...

No, a fused connection unit; the same as you might use to attach lights to your ring but in this case you put a 13 amp fuse in it. Once you have your new sockets take care not to overload thet 13 amp fuse!

thanks for the help, i hadn't considered a fused connection but it sounds like a good idea. although i may blow the fuse as the equipment is not exactly low power consumption:

The load that was going to be applied was a washing machine and a fridge. according to a rough bit of maths 13A * 240V = 3.1kW. Not quite sure what load the washing machine is, as i have to get round the back but it has hot and cold supplies so the heating element never gets used.

The fridge will probably be 1kW (or have i overestimated) ? which leaves me 2.1kW to play with. although i'd rather not use the full 13A if at all possible

nrgizerbunny said:

thanks for the help, i hadn't considered a fused connection but it sounds like a good idea. although i may blow the fuse as the equipment is not exactly low power consumption:

Click to expand...

Well the reason for adding the fuse is that a spur is only allowed to draw 13A, and the fuse enforces this. Otherwise you need to extend the ring to include the new sockets, then you can take 13A from each.

nrgizerbunny said:

The load that was going to be applied was a washing machine and a fridge. according to a rough bit of maths 13A * 240V = 3.1kW. Not quite sure what load the washing machine is, as i have to get round the back but it has hot and cold supplies so the heating element never gets used.

The fridge will probably be 1kW (or have i overestimated) ? which leaves me 2.1kW to play with. although i'd rather not use the full 13A if at all possible

Click to expand...

Well 1kW for a fridge is a tad overestimated... but as it has a motor it has a high start-up current, and if the washing machine is going full-belt at the same time that may overload the fuse briefly. Incidentally, having hot and cold feed doesn't mean the heating element isn't used - some washing machines mix the incoming water to an intermediate temperature and then heat it the rest of the way as part of the wash (I have a Hotpoint top-loader that does this).

If you can extend the ring, it's the best way, and the only extra is running another cable back from the end socket, and joining it to one of the cables where you were going to spur off (easy to say, I know!)

Cheers,

Howard

I'm with Howard (but don't take that too literally). You should look at the total power requirement for your washing machine, work out the current this will take then add at least 5 amps for the fridge.

Why 5 amps? Because I've tried to put fridges on 3 amp fused plugs in the past and the startup current would blow one every few weeks. The important word in all this is FRIDGE. You don't want to come home and find the thing's been off all day!