Dealing with an overloaded circuit

[assegayer]

appreciate the advice richard, you always give such a thorough explanation.

I went to see the job today and to my amazement the sockets where on a 6 amp mcb wired in 1mm. This was feeding (attempting to) a kettle, microwave, iron, tv and refrigerator he lives in a single room. obviously it trips out the 6 amp pretty quickly even if he was just to use say the tv and kettle.

luckily his single room is right next to the CU where there is a ring 32 amp and a 20amp radial with just one socket below the cu for a washing machine to plug in every now and then.

he is literally 2 or 3 meters from cu i was going to extend the raidial and add a socket in his room. then take another seperate supply from a 32 amp ring mcb (confirmed it is ring from testing) so there will be 3 line conductors in the mcb 2 for the orignal ring and one for my spur.

i want to do it this way because i know the 20amp will not hold out hes adding another heater soon for the winter and his girlfriend lives with him.

its all going to be surface clipped highlevel no surface trunking to double patress boxes.

your thoughts anyone?

 

[Richard Burns]

A 6A supply is really ridiculous, and the minimum size cable for power is 1.5mm².
Before making these changes it would be relevant to ensure that the landlord is happy with this arrangement! From the description of the circuits I would say, not!
Generally a 20A radial will be sufficient for most purposes and adding a spur from the ring would be redundant and indicative of excessive power use even in a single room. Unless as you say the only heating is electric.

 

[assegayer]

A 6A supply is really ridiculous, and the minimum size cable for power is 1.5mm².
Before making these changes it would be relevant to ensure that the landlord is happy with this arrangement! From the description of the circuits I would say, not!
Generally a 20A radial will be sufficient for most purposes and adding a spur from the ring would be redundant and indicative of excessive power use even in a single room. Unless as you say the only heating is electric.

the landlord genuinely does not give two sh****. The only heating is electric there is no central heating.

EDIT: dont know if you read one of my other posts but he jsut brings cheap 'sparks' that do stupid things like by passing the mcb. however recently they upgraded the board and the 'more real spark' removed the link and said it wasnt safe. Initially my mate wanted me to put the link back in as i got the usual 'its been working with the link for 3 years no problem' statement.

 

[Richard Burns]

OK then take one cable from the ring MCB joint it safely to a new length of cable and extend the ring out into the customers room and supply the sockets you require and finish back at the CU.

 

[assegayer]

OK then take one cable from the ring MCB joint it safely to a new length of cable and extend the ring out into the customers room and supply the sockets you require and finish back at the CU.

Would it be bad practise to just add it on to the mcb and have 3 line conductors 3 neutrals and three earths, because at the end of the day im still using 2.5mm cable protected by a 32amp mcb. (just enquiring)

 

[davesparks]

Would it be bad practise to just add it on to the mcb and have 3 line conductors 3 neutrals and three earths, because at the end of the day im still using 2.5mm cable protected by a 32amp mcb. (just enquiring)

It's fine to take a spur from the mcb like that, but is better to open and extend the ring wherever possible.

Plus extending the ring allows you to add more than one point wheras a spur is limited to one point

 

[assegayer]

It's fine to take a spur from the mcb like that, but is better to open and extend the ring wherever possible.

Thanks for that mate, guess ill extend the ring as both you and Richard suggested.

 

[Richard Burns]

Such an unfused spur from the ring could only supply, at maximum, one double socket, if you extend the ring you can have as many sockets as required.
The 20A radial would be simpler to come from to supply all your required sockets but would limit you to 20A.