loft wiring

[silas]

I have a loft conversion in my house(done before I moved in) and whilst redecorating it I decided to replace the plastic sockets with some brushed aluminium ones. I then noticed that some monkey has wired the five double sockets with 1.5mm cable on a single radial circuit to a 16amp mcb.
I know this is dodgy using 1.5mm cable but how dodgy is it I will probably want to run my computer, printer,portable telly a couple of side lights and occasionally the misses hair dryer on this circuit.
How safe is it?

 

[breezer]

change it to 2.5 to be sure

 

[chappers]

I will if I must but it would be a right royal pain in the arse especially as its all just been newly decorated.

Silas

 

[breezer]

be even more of a pain explaining why your house caught fire

 

[mrcrow]

would the fuse protect the wiring if it was low enough...
say take out all the 13A fuses and replace with....3A?

is there a factor for how much probablility in using all the sockets to the full power at one time...etc.



or....turn it into a ring main.....if possible..

 

[silas]

Breezer totally agree on the fire front thats why I was asking.

How many amps can a 1.5mm cable safely carry as I will probably dowgrade the mcb and just not load the circuit too much its only a bedroom after all I can always leave the computer where it is.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

How many amps can a 1.5mm cable safely carry as I will probably dowgrade the mcb and just not load the circuit too much its only a bedroom after all I can always leave the computer where it is.

It can, in theory, be OK up to 16A, but there are a number of "it depends" at that value.

See here for all the gory details:

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Book/4.3.1.htm

Or you could play safe and replace the MCB with a 10A one.

 

[silas]

Cheers B-A-S sounds like that will be plenty for my needs
can I use I=P/V to work out the load or is there something else I should take into consideration.