replace fused switch with double socket

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14 Jun 2008
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Dumfriesshire
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United Kingdom
hi folks,firstly reading these forums and the answers the many proffesionals give is excellent

my question is,in my house we had electric panel heaters fitted which in one of the bedrooms we never use, it is fed from a fused switch outlet on the wall and this in turn is connected to the cu with 2.5mm twin and earth and protected by a 16amp mcb...well i think its 16 amp the info on the mcd is hager mt116 b16,this only protects the one heater as the other 5 heaters in the house all have there own mcb

what i was wanting to do was replace the fused switch on the wall with a double socket,then take a spur off of this and connect another double socket about 10 feet away,will i be ok to do this with the current 16amp mcb,all i want the sockets for is a pc and monitor in one room and an xbox and tv in another so nothing too power hungry..and thoughts would be great
 
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Assuming the supply is permanent (not economy 7 which is only on during the night) then you are probably OK to do this, on the proviso that the original circuit was designed correctly to take 16A. Considering the 16A MCB, this would be a fair assumption to make.

The term 'spurring off' in incorrect in this situation as the feed is from a radial circuit, therefore you can connect as many sockets as you wish as long as you can guarantee volt drop, ELI, disconnection times, etc.

Can't stress enough to double check how the supply is wired at the consumer unit, as it does sound very much like a typical economy 7 setup to me, perhaps with a boost function to allow running the heaters in the day on account of them not being the storage type.
 
thanks for the reply,we do have storage heaters but they are on the economy 7 side of the cu unit,all the panel heaters are on the the permanent live side with each one wired to its on 16amp mcb,up here in scotland we a tarrif called comfort plus which has three rates,day rate for all the usual stuff,night rate for the storrage heaters and hot water during the night,and cofort plus rate which is a third rate betwwen day and night,this is permanant so as we can put the the panel heaters on during the day at a cheaper rate of electricity but took your advice and double checked and indeed this is the case,reason i know this as well was about a year ago we got a power shower fitted and the electrician who fitted id to the cu unit said there was space on the comfort plus side of the cu and wired the shower to that
 

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