Incorrect Ring Main Wiring

[DarrenSL]

Is it ever ok to wire up the ring main so that it is not a continuous ring?

I noticed that when I disconnected one of the sockets I was working on recently that only one side was live. I eventually tracked the problem down to the kitchen when I spotted that the freezer was on but the firdge wasn't. The appliances are supplied by 2 fused spurs but rather than taking the 2 spurs from the adjacent socket they have been wired so that one leg of the ring terminates at the freezer, the other at the fridge.

It looks to have been wired very deliberately like this and was done at the time the kitchen extension was built, presumeably by a competent electrician (although I'm only going of the fact that the wiring is very neat).

 

[pompeygit]

Have you lookedinside your consumer unit?
What size breaker supplies this circuit? And how many live wires are terminated at the breaker? What size cable is it?

 

[DarrenSL]

Thanks for the quick response.

All the sockets in the house are on a single 30A fuse (wire) with 2 wires (standard 2.5mm T&E). Basically one leg of the 'ring' supplies the whole house, terminating at the fridge. The other leg supplies the freezer!

It just looks like a very obvious mistake, hence the question.

 

[pompeygit]

Have you tested continuity at the breaker.......checked that outgoing line is continuous to the incoming line. If this were the caseyou could indeed have a ring and the fridge/freezer maybe spurs or spidered from a junction box underthe floor

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Is it ever ok to wire up the ring main so that it is not a continuous ring?

If it's not continuous then it is not a ring, and the CPD needs to be reduced to a suitable value for a radial.

I noticed that when I disconnected one of the sockets I was working on recently that only one side was live.

I hope you mean "found when testing" and not "happened to notice in passing", as the latter implies unsafe practices...

presumeably by a competent electrician

Don't think so

 

[DarrenSL]

Thanks b-a-s. 'Found while testing' is correct, although I was actaully testing the crimps I'd added.

It looks like it should be a ring to me and it's simply been wired up wrong. The question was really to see if there was any legit reason to have two radials (albeit massively unbalanced) rather than one ring.

Thanks again.