HandyJon said:
The whole point of a ring is that there is no "side", the current flows down both sides to the equipment.
Yes, but if the load is not exactly in the middle of the ring, then the current flow on each leg of the ring will not be equal, and in the case of a very unbalenced ring, you can overload one side of the ring
You can overload a ring by plugging in too much equipment but the MCBs in the CU will stop the cable overheating.
Its possible for a ring cable to be overloaded, even if the circuit in general isn't, if the loads are unbalencec around the ring
If you are planning on putting large loads on a ring then the electrician might design in multiple rings, or even seperate radials, for specific items depending on their power rating, but not socket order.
au contraire, while number and type of circuits is something considered in the design, so is balence of ring circuits, because as above, its a good idea to do your best to design out the possibily of an unnbalenced ring
As for the how the cable is routed, it will have to come together at some point to meet up at the CU! Where they follow the same route can be anywhere.
Obviously they come together at the CU, its a ring, and I'm not quite sure what exactly the second part of this statement is saying
If you did do the alternate socket procedure you would need to document the cable route since it would be very unusual and not something an electrician would think to check out when testing the system.
It wouldn't be that unusual, its often done for example where a conduit runs along a wall with many outlets on it, and the circuit used is a ring, and both legs return to the orgin through the same conduit, to do otherwise would lead to a ring thats unbalenced by design. And not sure what test you are talking about, but the only thing that I can think it would cause a problem with, is if the tests indicate a fault and your are trying to trace this fault, it would be usful to know which order the ring is in then, but I would have thought that most electricians would not be thrown by it, its not like it isn't good practice to design ring circuits so they are balenced...
That's a hint that you don't need to, or even possibly shouldn't, carry out the procedure.
I beg to differ, as explained above