What if it were a 32A circuit?
Can a socket be put on this?
- Thread starter boxrick
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Well, it's the old story - you do a spur on a 32amp ring circuit in 2.5mm2, and on a 32amp socket radial you happily do a single spur in 2.5mm2 - and I suppose on a 40amp circuit it feels 'different' - yet in principle no different.
Quite -no different at all - and, indeed, it would still be "no different" if a 2.5mm² spur feeding one socket was fed from a 50A, or even 63A, circuit.
Kind Regards, John
But we never seem to do that though, if we only have those higher amperage breakers to hand.
And if such a circuit was installed, and an EICR was later done, I genuinely feel most if not all electricians would fail it and demand a 16 or 20 or 25 be fitted.
Not my personal view, but that's what I feel would happen.
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I think that is an argument for more knowledgeable EICR inspectors rather than against installing conformant spurs.
It obviously wouldn't normally be done,since there would virtually never be a need. I was merely making the point that, in terms of both electrical common sense and the regs, a 2.5mm² cable feeding one socket is fine, regardless of the rating of the OPD, provided only that the OPD gives adequate fault protection to the cable (which surprising high-rating MCBs will do).
You might be right - but, if so, that would be a sad indictment of "most if not all electricians". If the cable is feeding just one socket, all they need to determine (and they ought to be capable of this) is whether the OPD provides adequate fault protection - and (as I've said, as would usually be the case) if it was adequate, accept that there was no problem which would justify a 'fail' on an EICR.
Kind Regards, John
I suppose the reason it feels 'wrong' is that it causes a change in the disconnection time for the circuit, now on MCBs its not likley there would be a problem meeting 0.4 sec, but the fact that it causes the circuit to change from 'fixed equipment >32A' to having coket outlets on could be the reason why it feels wrong.
Yes I know we have exctly the same if we have socket on control for 40A cooker cirucit, and back in the 16th days socket on a lighting cirucit (wait a moment, does that explain winstons position?!)
Quite - particularly when, as would be very common, it's just a very short 2.5mm² spur off a circuit with a fatter cable, since it's only the additional R1+R2 of that short length of cable which alters the Zs, hence the disconnection time.
I suspect that it 'felt wrong' to many/most of us the first time we came across it - but that was because we had not previously properly 'thought about it'.
Kind Regards, John
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