Is this safe or not please.

[Honeybea]

I'm really confused as to who's right?
We're installing a new kitchen - electrician says the electrics in the kitchen are dodgy. I call the housing association who we rent from, their electrician comes out and says they are fine...perfectly safe.
Here is just one of the problems- from what I understood a kitchen must be on its own circuit- when you put the trip switch down, it turns off all my kitchen but also turns off every single plug socket in the whole of the upstairs if my house? This to me means it's not on it's own circuit!
The landlords electrician totally baffled me with coming out with loads of different things as to why it's safe/ok...one of them being it's OK to have the kitchen wiring running to upstairs - as long as it comes back down again? He has now reported back to the landlords nothings wrong here, but my private electrician is saying no it's not safe or legal. I'm very confused.

 

[EFLImpudence]

from what I understood a kitchen must be on its own circuit-

No.

when you put the trip switch down, it turns off all my kitchen but also turns off every single plug socket in the whole of the upstairs if my house? This to me means it's not on it's own circuit!

It's not but not everything can be - well it could but you wouldn't want to pay for it.

The landlords electrician totally baffled me with coming out with loads of different things as to why it's safe/ok...one of them being it's OK to have the kitchen wiring running to upstairs - as long as it comes back down again?

That is a Ring circuit - leaves consumer unit, runs all around the house and back to CU.
Some houses used to only have one ring circuit for every socket in the house.
Now people like to, or need to because of lots of appliances, have more than one.
At least the rest of your downstairs is not on the same circuit as the kitchen.

He has now reported back to the landlords nothings wrong here, but my private electrician is saying no it's not safe or legal. I'm very confused.

Did you ask him why it's not safe? If it is safe then it is legal.

 

[securespark]

I think the spark you are asking for a quote from needs to come up with some regulation numbers to back up why he thinks the installation is not safe.

If he can't do that, or he comes back with nonsense, sack him and choose someone who knows what they are doing.

Post his answers here and we can advise.

 

[securespark]

There are certain situations that are not to current standards, but don't necessarily make the installation dangerous.

These include one RCD covering the whole installation.

 

[sparkwright]

As mentioned, no actual requirement for kitchen sockets to be on their own circuit.

Assuming the circuit tests out ok, and there's no faults on it, there is no specific reason not to use it - given the limited info we have.

 

[FrodoOne]

from what I understood a kitchen must be on its own circuit.

That is a requirement in North America, largely because they (generally) use 120 V on Radial circuits from which only 15 A - 1800 W (sometimes 20 A - 2400 W) can be drawn from the whole circuit.
(Because of this, it is also a requirement in North America that Microwaves (in cupboards), Dishwashers and some other "appliances" be on their own separate radial circuit.)

In the UK, on a 230 V 20 A Radial circuit, each 13 A Socket-Outlet can supply up to 13 A - 2990 W and the total Radial can supply 20 A - 4600 W, to several socket-outlets.
On a UK 230 V "Ring" circuit, each 13 A Socket-Outlet can supply up to 13 A - 2990 W and the total "Ring" can supply 32 A - 7360 W

However, if the house is supplied by Radials, it is not a bad idea to have more than one radial serving the kitchen and other rooms as well. since it is not likely that kitchen appliances will be drawing high currents at the same time as may be drawn in other rooms of the house. (For example, it is not likely that Ironing or Vacuuming will be done while breakfast, lunch or dinner is being cooked - although one might make a cup of tea while ironing.)

Personally, the socket-outlets in my kitchen are variously supplied on three radial circuits, each of which also serve socket-outlets in one or more other rooms.

 

[sparkwright]

There will or may be the case where a ring circuit looks so badly wired that an electrician will prefer to run a brand new circuit, so he's not 'involved' with the bad wiring.

 

[plugwash]

There is no rule saying that kitchen sockets must be on their own circuit.

There are however rules saying things like overload protection devices are not intended to be used as load limiting devices, that ring circuits should be designed such that sustained overloading of one of the ring legs is unlikely (which means you should not have load concentrated at one end of the ring), that installations should be split into circuits to avoid danger and minimize inconvenience and so-on.

These rules are not black and white, there will be cases where electricians may legitimately have different professional opinions on whether they have been complied with. Equally though there are almost certainly some electricians out there whose opinions/interpretations are way out of line with the mainstream view, in both directions.

 

[mattylad]

FWIW all my kitchen sockets are on the same circuit as the rest of my house.

 

[Keithmac]

Our Kitchen is on the ground floor socket ring main (bar the electric cooker supply).

Bit odd yours is Kitchen + Upstairs, make sure it's properly labelled in the consumer unit!.

 

[Honeybea]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I think the electrician got further advice and now realises that it is OK to have the kitchen and upstairs on one ring.
I really appreciate the advice you all gave me.