Ring circuit for all the sockets ?

Hennessy · May 23, 2021

Hi there,
Hoping for some advice if possible..
Just moved into a property and have gone over the wiring that has been tested and inspected in the last 18months
The house is a fairly small 2 bed (around 53m2 over 2 floors)
What surprised me the most is that at the consumer unit there are 5breakers 1. Lights Ground floor, 2. Lights First Floor, 3. Cooker, 4. Shower and 5. Sockets?
just wanted to see if that’s normal that the whole house is ran off a single Ring Circuit including all the kitchen? Or the kitchen should be rewired to another ring ?
Thanks in advance!

Darkwood · May 23, 2021

If you can take a picture of the consumer unit (fusebox) it would save many a question but I suspect it is a dated install and possibly from pre 90's where houses tended to only have 4 or 6 way fuse-boxes.

catdog1121 · May 23, 2021

My house is a 2 bed, built in early 80's and has one ring.. Never had the mcb trip... My old man lives on the same estate in a 4 bed house built around same time, one ring for the whole house (Apart from the extra ring I put in for a new conservatory). He has fish tanks and all sorts of stuff, never been an issue, he did notice that the lights in the fish tank went dim when the washer and dryer were on but I found no continuity on the neutral which turned out to be at one of the first sockets it had come out..

Unless your gunna plug in loads of electric heaters then I doubt it will be an issue, maybe when you change the kitchen then add in a new ring for the kitchen to add more sockets but don't really see the problem.

MJPD29 · May 24, 2021

Came across it loads of times. Was fairly normal at one point in smaller houses

Mike Johnson · May 24, 2021

It wont be long before they all have to be updated though with the push on electric everything, must see if my mangle still works. ?

DPG · May 24, 2021

Probably never trip, more likely to trip because of cummulative earth leakage. Assuming there is an RCD fitted.

pc1966 · May 24, 2021

It used to be very common for a flat or small house to have a single ring final for all sockets.

Unless you have problems of it tripping then nothing to worry about.

Mike Johnson · May 24, 2021

Tungsten bulbs used to trip the MCB's when they blew, invariably the filament would short out.

Hennessy · May 24, 2021

Thanks for all the replies! The consumer unit is only few years old and like I said it’s been all inspected and certified.
Just seemed odd that everything is running off a single ring but will be doing the kitchen soonish so will definitely look to have a separate ring for the kitchen.
Thanks all !!

Mike Johnson · May 24, 2021

And whilst you are at it put in a separate cooker circuit and possibly a separate Hob circuit, especially if you are considering an induction hob that you want to operate all four areas on at once.

pc1966 · May 24, 2021

In reality the RFC is very robust and tolerant of most usage. My own flat has the RFC off a 20A breaker including the kitchen, not even the more common 32A, and the only times it has tripped in 20+ years have been faults that have also blown the plug's fuse.

Unless you plug in a few of 3kW heaters and have your washing machine, tumble drier, and dishwasher all going on their heat-cycle simultaneously you won't see any problems!

pc1966 · May 24, 2021

Though just to emphasise what @DPG pointed out, if you have lots of electronics in use it can reach the RCD limit for leakage tripping long before you reach the over-current limit.

Dustydazzler · May 24, 2021

My 3 bed house 1980s build (still original wiring & 16th ed board) has 1 ring main for all general sockets.
however lights are split over 2 circuits up / down.

Ring circuit for all the sockets ?

Hennessy

Darkwood

catdog1121

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MJPD29

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Mike Johnson

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