Am I Right Or Wrong

[SKY]

Hi All

Brother in law just moved into a council owned starter flat - small-ish with 1 bedroom.

The kitchen is on a separate ring main as are the lights and the outside lighting.

The socket circuit feeds ONLY 4 double outlets (2 in BR and 2 in LR) by looking at the CU it appears to be wired as a ring final with a feed out and feed return protected by a 32a RCBO using 2.5mm T+E.

Now I took off ALL the 4 face plates that make up the circuit and there is only 1 line 1 N and 1 CPC so it really appears that there must be a ring main to an unknown JB and tails supplying the socket outlets.

I have said to my Brother In Law that the 32a protective device is to big to be able to offer over current protection to the single tails, he called the council electrician to tell him my findings who visited the property today and said that yes there is a ring main under the floor and that the 32a protective device is OK.

As you would guess I'm saying to him this is incorrect and the council sparks is saying its OK - Who is right??
As you would imagine the council sparks has left in the 32a RCBO.




** there is no visible signs of fused spurs or accessible JBs that I can find**
**The cable run is run in part plastic trunk (grouped) then direct clipped to joists then in the wall up to the outlet**

I would be happy for a 16a protective device or a 20a max.

 

[Octopus]

Doesn't sound right to me!

 

[IQ Electrical]

Hi All

Brother in law just moved into a council owned starter flat - small-ish with 1 bedroom.

The kitchen is on a separate ring main as are the lights and the outside lighting.

The socket circuit feeds ONLY 4 double outlets (2 in BR and 2 in LR) by looking at the CU it appears to be wired as a ring final with a feed out and feed return protected by a 32a RCBO using 2.5mm T+E.

Now I took off ALL the 4 face plates that make up the circuit and there is only 1 line 1 N and 1 CPC so it really appears that there must be a ring main to an unknown JB and tails supplying the socket outlets.

I have said to my Brother In Law that the 32a protective device is to big to be able to offer over current protection to the single tails, he called the council electrician to tell him my findings who visited the property today and said that yes there is a ring main under the floor and that the 32a protective device is OK.

As you would guess I'm saying to him this is incorrect and the council sparks is saying its OK - Who is right??
As you would imagine the council sparks has left in the 32a RCBO.




** there is no visible signs of fused spurs or accessible JBs that I can find**
**The cable run is run in part plastic trunk (grouped) then direct clipped to joists then in the wall up to the outlet**

As long as there are no spurs from spurs then you can have 1 spur per ring outlet.

Fused spurs are infinite.

In this case, as it appears that there are no outlets on the ring, you are correct.

 

[mickys86]

I'm guessing the council is going to have a nice call from you again. Let us know what happens

 

[telectrix]

sounds like a proper council job. each socket spurred off the ring to save a few yards of cable.if there are JBs, they must be accessible. get him back and find out where they are .

 

[SKY]

correct, if this was the case then there would need to be 4 outlets wired into the ring for there to be 4 spurs.

 

[telectrix]

that's how i see it.

 

[Engineer54]

How times have changed!! Council properties were once the benchmark of how domestic electrical installations should be conducted. That's certainly not the case these days, from many of the threads and photo's i've seen on the Forum....

 

[telectrix]

never yet seen a council job that wasn't all mini trunking and surface patresses. one close to me has all the drops in trunking, even though the original drops were in tube, and the new cabling could easily have used these existing buried drops.

 

[IQ Electrical]

How times have changed!! Council properties were once the benchmark of how domestic electrical installations should be conducted. That's certainly not the case these days, from many of the threads and photo's i've seen on the Forum....

1 Subcontract all works to the lowest bidder

2 Make all Clerk of Works redundant

3 Pay subcontractors without inspection of works

4 Repent at leisure.....

 

[SPARTYKUS]

I must defend a local (Wolverhampton ish) one - was rewired a year or two back (not surface) and the bits I got to look at were.....dare I say it and sound a saddo.....beautiful. Sweeps and neatness that I would dream of.

So not all bad. Maybe he had 3 weeks for a 1 week job !

 

[telectrix]

there's always an exception that proves the rule. must have been a decent sparks. some must work for councils

 

[Engineer54]

never yet seen a council job that wasn't all mini trunking and surface patresses. one close to me has all the drops in trunking, even though the original drops were in tube, and the new cabling could easily have used these existing buried drops.

That original installation with all the drops in conduits is the one i was talking about, not the crap that's been thrown in, as an excuse of a rewire by some spotty nosed kids, playing at being electricians!! ...lol!!

 

[Engineer54]

1 Subcontract all works to the lowest bidder

2 Make all Clerk of Works redundant

3 Pay subcontractors without inspection of works

4 Repent at leisure.....

Agree 110%, Yet another example of why public services should never be privatised.

 

[IQ Electrical]

Agree 110%, Yet another example of why public services should never be privatised.

I'm not against privatisation but the control has to be kept in place.

Things are getting better now that the contracts are awarded on a points basis and cost only forms part of the awarded points that go towards a successful bid.