planned cable route for new socket

[garyo]

I need to install a new socket in a downstairs back hallway. There are two potential ways of wiring it, both ways are as a spur of an existing ring.

1) run a cable straight down from a socket directly above it in an upstairs room. I presume that's not allowed, as it'd make use of the consumer unit to isolate floors unreliable and dangerous.

2) run a cable from a waist height kitchen socket - directly up to ceiling level, inside the floor cavity for 4 feet, through one joist, then directly down in a chased out rebate in a solid brick wall.

So assuming 2 is the only way to go - do I need to run the spur from the back of the kitchen socket, or can I take it off at ceiling level using junction blocks?

Thanks

Gary

 

[Steve]

1 is perfectly aceptable. consumer unit doesn't need to isolate floors.

Some people have one ring main for the whole house.

In my house, I have a ring main for the upstairs and the dining room. It was convenient to wire like this, since the extension has its own radial feed, and the kitchen has its own ring, there was no point having a seperate circuit just for the dining room.

 

[garyo]

Excellent! Option 1 it is then.

Cheers

Gary

 

[markthebuilder]

if circuit is labeled upstairs sockets/ ring at CU don't forget to add + socket in rear hall

 

[Big_Spark]

As this is a domestic residence the rules are a bit grey. However if your rings are split between Upstairs and Downstairs then I would suggest that linking a socket downstairs from the upstairs circuit is potentially dangerous, and not a good idea. Nothing to stop you, but not good practice.

Whilst the 2nd option is the most work(sorry) it is the best solution.With regards the JB, so long as it accessible then it is perfectly acceptable, if it is not accessible, then another solution would need to be looked at.

Are your downstairs sockets wired from underneath? Would it not be easier to spur off a downstairs socket and run under the floorboards to the new socket location?

 

[Steve]

As long as the protective device for the circuit is labelled according to what it controls, there is no problem with dropping from upstairs. For example, The MCB for the mega ring in our house is marked "upstairs sockets, dining room".

The OP could just as easily label his "upstairs ring, socket in back hallway"

And if you're feeling really thorough, stick a big of paper in the socket box saying "isolate upstairs sockets first" or similar, though it isn't nessecary.

 

[garyo]

all of the downstairs floors are concrete, and the nearest other downstairs socket happens to be the other side of a chimney breast which makes things worse, so that leaves me with the kitchen socket which is on the opposite side and end of hall to where I need the socket to be, hence the 'up and down' requirement there.

Gary