I've been browsing this site for a while now. Last time I posted it was to ask for advice about lighting, and I got some really helpful advice which has helped me to sort out some problems in the lighting circuit - my CFLs don't flash all night when they are off any more! And they are earthed...
I am after a bit more advice now. Our kitchen has what used to be a larder area, now without a door, and with the fridge/freezer and washing machine in there. The power to this room is provided by two spurs coming from a single junction box in the ceiling above the room. It looks like someone broke into the ring at some point, added the junction box, and then sent the two spurs from it down to the larder.
At the end of one of the spurs is a single socket - the fridge/freezer is connected there, and then the power is looped out of the socket and on to an outside light. I'm going to do something about the outside light - probably dump it altogether. Then this spur would have just a single socket at the end.
But I am concerned about the other spur. This one goes to a double socket - the washing machine is connected there, and then down to another junction box with armoured cable going across the garden (pinned to a wall, just above ground level) and into the shed, where a consumer unit with old wire fuses distributes the power to a double socket and a single light.
Question: The second spur - Would it be better if it was part of the ring as far as the double socket, and then the shed supply could be spurred from there? I am concerned about the possibility of overloading the spur as things stand - suppose someone plugged a tumble-dryer into the double?
If the answer to this is 'yes', then it would make sense to convert the other spur as well, and remove the junction box under the floor altogether - if I can find the sockets which are either side of it. I believe using junction boxes in this way is not recommended practice any longer.
Better still, I guess, would be if the shed was on its own radial from the house CU - but there isn't a spare space in the CU to dedicate to the shed...
What do you think?
PS I know this is almost definitely notifiable, and Part P. I'm more interested in the wiring than the law at this point.
I am after a bit more advice now. Our kitchen has what used to be a larder area, now without a door, and with the fridge/freezer and washing machine in there. The power to this room is provided by two spurs coming from a single junction box in the ceiling above the room. It looks like someone broke into the ring at some point, added the junction box, and then sent the two spurs from it down to the larder.
At the end of one of the spurs is a single socket - the fridge/freezer is connected there, and then the power is looped out of the socket and on to an outside light. I'm going to do something about the outside light - probably dump it altogether. Then this spur would have just a single socket at the end.
But I am concerned about the other spur. This one goes to a double socket - the washing machine is connected there, and then down to another junction box with armoured cable going across the garden (pinned to a wall, just above ground level) and into the shed, where a consumer unit with old wire fuses distributes the power to a double socket and a single light.
Question: The second spur - Would it be better if it was part of the ring as far as the double socket, and then the shed supply could be spurred from there? I am concerned about the possibility of overloading the spur as things stand - suppose someone plugged a tumble-dryer into the double?
If the answer to this is 'yes', then it would make sense to convert the other spur as well, and remove the junction box under the floor altogether - if I can find the sockets which are either side of it. I believe using junction boxes in this way is not recommended practice any longer.
Better still, I guess, would be if the shed was on its own radial from the house CU - but there isn't a spare space in the CU to dedicate to the shed...
What do you think?
PS I know this is almost definitely notifiable, and Part P. I'm more interested in the wiring than the law at this point.