Junction box wiring ringmain in loft

[lancenotalot]

A lot of the wiring in our loft space was very untidy,cables not clipped to beams etc.

I have been tidying it up bit and have noticed that there is no return to the cu off the last socket.There are a couple of the sockets fed via junction boxes.Would this cause a problem if I decide to have cable from the last socket back to the cu.

It a 1950s build so I assume its a radial circuit and have read that a ring circuit is safer.

 

[ColJack]

are you sure it's sockets and not lights? some people on here call lights "light sockets"..

without more info we can't help you.. we need to know what size cable and what size breaker of fuse is on these sockets.

 

[lancenotalot]

Def sockets,2.5mm cable and 30amp jb,30amp rewireable fuse for ring.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

And you're sure that you're looking at the end of a radial circuit, and not sockets spurred off a ring final?

 

[securespark]

Are you in a position to verify by testing whether a proper RF circuit exists?

If not, I would err on the side of caution and replace that 30A with a 20A device, then call a spark to check this out.

At the same time, it sounds as if a PIR might well be a good idea.

 

[viewer]

By coincidence I went to a house yesterday where there was clearly an intact ring for the sockets I could check, but only one line in the CU. Had to pull up a bit of floor to find a radial to the junction box and a ring fed from the JB. The ring was newish and sound, but the radial and JB were nothing short of dangerous with bare conductors and the cable trapped under a floor joist. Might be a similar situation for you?

 

[robbie77]

By coincidence I went to a house yesterday where there was clearly an intact ring for the sockets I could check, but only one line in the CU. Had to pull up a bit of floor to find a radial to the junction box and a ring fed from the JB. The ring was newish and sound, but the radial and JB were nothing short of dangerous with bare conductors and the cable trapped under a floor joist. Might be a similar situation for you?

Is this OK to do? I think my house has a similar setup for upstairs. It looks like it has one length of 2.5mm from the CU to the just underneath the floor board and then a junction box with multiple wires attached.

 

[davelx]

Is this OK to do? I think my house has a similar setup for upstairs. It looks like it has one length of 2.5mm from the CU to the just underneath the floor board and then a junction box with multiple wires attached.

Any circuit configuration is OK so long as it is safe and ideally complies with the regs - which yours probably is not & does not:

1) The maximum capacity of 2.5mm cable is 27A, so if your circuit has a 32A MCB it is non-compliant & potentially dangerous. Depending on installation method and voltage drop considerations, the minumum size cable for the radial section would be 4mm - it may need to be bigger.

2) It's not a standard circuit configuration, so safety & compliance with the regs would to be verified by a full set of design calculations.