3 wires in ring main breaker???

[Biffco]

I opened my DB to recheck the size of my existing shower cable and I noticed that my 30 A downstairs ring-main breaker has three red 2.5mm cores connected into it. Also the insulation has started to become dicoloured on one of the cores and the terminal screw on the breaker is also discoloured.

Now, the red that has been getting hot was slightly loose so I tidied it up and re-secured it.

After having a think about it, I was wondering why there would be three seperate cores fed from that one breaker, I'm assuming that originally there were only the two for the ring and that something has been added. What is worrying me is that if someone has previously added an extra socket or sockets (Radial) somewhere, then there is the potential to draw 30 Amps down that single cable which I believe is beyond the general limits of a single 2.5 mm T+E cable.

Am I right? or was the heat just caused by the loose connection?

I would think that I should identify which two are the ring main and which is the odd one and give the odd one it's own 15/16 amp breaker.

Any advice is greatfully recieved.

 

[Lectrician]

You can take a spur to a single or double socket from the ring circuit. This spur can be taken from the back of a socket, a joint box, or the CU.

If it is a simple spur, thats fine. If it is feeding more than one socket, thats not good.

You could take all three out, find continuity between two (the ring), and then reconnect the 'spur' temporarily on it's own - Turn just this breaker on and look for what is live.

Most likely just a loose connection, but worth making sure you only have a single spur.