Extending Upstairs Ringmain

[CMTPB4]

I'm wanting to extend the upstairs ring main in my 3 bedroom house. The house is 3 years old and the electrics are as when I bought the house new. On the upstairs ring there are three sockets in each bedroom, two on the landing and one in the loft. The idea is to add one further socket to each room via the loft by using the socket in the loft to extend the ring main. This would mean the cable will go round the edge of the loft.

A friend who is an electrician would be doing the work. As he works more on the commercial side for a company he does not issue installation certificates himself. Can anyone advise on whether this work is notifiable and if an installation certificate is needed seeing as it is breaking into an existing ring main. Also would the size of the ring main be a problem seeing as the size would be doubled?

I just want to be clear of things myself before anything is done. Thanks for any advice.

 

[riveralt]

I'm wanting to extend the upstairs ring main in my 3 bedroom house. The house is 3 years old and the electrics are as when I bought the house new. On the upstairs ring there are three sockets in each bedroom, two on the landing and one in the loft. The idea is to add one further socket to each room via the loft by using the socket in the loft to extend the ring main. This would mean the cable will go round the edge of the loft.

Why not just run a spur from the nearest socket in each room?

A friend who is an electrician would be doing the work. As he works more on the commercial side for a company he does not issue installation certificates himself. Can anyone advise on whether this work is notifiable and if an installation certificate is needed seeing as it is breaking into an existing ring main. Also would the size of the ring main be a problem seeing as the size would be doubled?

This is not notifiable but still must comply with Part P and BS7671.
Historically ring final circuits have been limited to 100m2. The issue with the length of a RFC is the voltage drop.

 

[LearningSpark]

As riveralt said why not spur off in each room? or break into the ring in each room and extend it? This would use less cable and keep the length of the ring shorter than going all around the loft. The loft socket may be a spur and not actually part of the ring. The work is not notifiable but your electrician should still issue you with a minor works certificate.

 

[CMTPB4]

The additional sockets in each room would be for TV's mounted on the wall so the sockets will be quite close to the ceiling and easier accessed from the loft to do this. The other sockets in the rooms are not on the same walls that the new sockets are wanted. So going through the loft seems the best option. The socket in the loft is part of the upstairs ring main this has been checked. Was just wondering about the size of the upstairs ring if this was done. As the bedrooms will only contain a TV, HiFi and not much else would the voltage drop be much to be concerned about?

 

[securespark]

If the loft socket is a spur, you could just fit a fused spur before it, then run the loft socket and the 3 bedroom sockets from the spur.

I am assuming you will only be using AV equipment from the new sockets and there is not a loft conversion with the possibility of heaters being plugged into the loft socket.

That would give a little over 3A for each socket, plenty for AV.