How unsafe are spurs?

[thornton_chris]

We have quite recently moved to a Victorian cottage.
As far as I can tell the front room and kitchen sockets are all fitted in a traditional ring on the same fuse. The trouble is that the dining room and utility room sockets are all fed off of a spur, thats 5 double sockets and 1 single socket!
They don't all loop off each other but are connected to various terminal boxes(http://www.screwfix.com/prods/15143/Electrical/Cable-Accessories/Junction-Boxes/Heavy-Duty-Junction-Box-20A-6-Terminal). For all intense and purposes though they are all on 1 big spur.
Is this unsafe? What will 2.4mm twin and earth take?
Cheers,
Chris

 

[Big_Nige]

Is this unsafe? What will 2.4mm twin and earth take?

Are you sure they are a spur, and not a loop into a ring, or a figure 8?

If they are really on a spur, then they should be rectified. If you had a survey, this should have been noticed.

 

[Spark123]

Are they all fed off individual spurs from the ring or do they share a common cable? What size MCB/fuse protects this circuit?

 

[thornton_chris]

As far as I can remember (I'm at work now) it is all fed off 1 spur which is off the main downstairs ring. This is protected by a fuse with 15Amp wire in.

 

[flyingsparks]

As far as I can remember (I'm at work now) it is all fed off 1 spur which is off the main downstairs ring. This is protected by a fuse with 15Amp wire in.

If it is all on a 15A then its not a problem. If it is on a 30A (like most rings are) then it is a problem and needs to be rectified, turned back into a ring or de-rating the fuse to 15A.

 

[thornton_chris]

Thats great. At least I don't need to get it changed. I'll stick with the 15amp fuse wire.
I was worried about the cable getting hot and catching fire or something but looks like I could be safe!

 

[RF Lighting]

I think it might still be an idea to get an electrician to have a look over the wiring.

Rewireable fuses and a circuit arrangement like the one you detail is often a sign of an ageing installation.

 

[thornton_chris]

Are there any meaurements I can take to check for electrical safety?

I've got a decent multi-meter and am quite confident in its use so is there anything you can suggest?

 

[securespark]

If you had a survey, this should have been noticed.

Not necessarily.

When we bought Secure Towers, the survey was one of the top we could have, £900.

But as soon as the guy got in the front door, he said, we don't do gas we don't check appliances, we don't check plumbing, we don't check electrics.....

 

[Click-Sure]

They don't always look in lofts. etc etc.

As far a testing you can do yourself with a multimeter, you're a bit limited. Electricians carry specialist, calibrated test equipment which can perform a lot of tests a multimeter can't.

I'd agree with RF and say get a Periodic Inspection Report done, not sure how much to pay as not only do I not do them on their own (only before major works) it will vary up and down this great land.

Better low-ohms conductor resistance measurement, earth loop impeadence, potential fault current measurement, RCD testing, Insulation Resistance measurement (or meggering) which is a really good one for getting an idea of the integrity of a cable/accessories.