Help me put right a bit of iffy electrics done by elderly relative.

[72-van]

Hi Guys
For the last few weeks i have been sorting out some iffy stuff at a relatives home .Some of which was exceptionally iffy.
Heres a description of the latest one i have found .
two storey semi with attic
upstairs ring main single socket has a spur taken from it (no fused unit for isolation) which feeds a double socket in a cupboard .
This double in turn has two plugs in it .
Both the plugs are wired with 1mm twin n earth lighting cable.
plug 1 feeds an external pir lamp at the front door of the property .
plug 2 feeds a series of flo fittings in the attic via an antique neon switch which accesory is broken not securely fixed.


I would welcome any pointers as to the best remedy.

My thoughts are fit a fcu at the single socket then wire the exterior light correctly to this .
find the upstairs lighting circuit and break into that with a 5amp terminal unit and feed the lights from there.


However is there a way to use the single feed from the ring suitablly fused for isolation to feed both the attic lights and the exterior light.


Many thanks

72-van

 

[72-van]

Sat the 2391 never said i passed ...lol

resit planned soon

I had no intention of re-using the plugs to feed either of the "circuits " that exist at present and have every intention of making the whole thing as safe as possible

judging by the previous rectifications i have already made for my relative the flo light fittings will be badly wired and will need some serious attention coupled to the fact that i am pretty damm sure that nowhere in the regs does it allow twin n earth to go into a std 1361 plug

 

[72-van]

I am based in fife

my relative is very old (but still quite able) and will not spend to have this rectified .

I have spent hours trying to expalin polarity and continuity he cannot grasp these concepts ..

His agrument is that the lights work ,have done for twenty plus years .

He also thinks that Ac electricity is safe and cannot hurt you ..

it just throws you off...

can you understand that i cannot win here ..
The best i can do is get it safe for a ninety plus year old independant man

 

[trev]

You cannot take a 2.5 spur off a 2.5 ring.

Since when?

 

[72-van]

I thought you could take a spur to feed a radial circuit from a ring .provided that it had a means of isolation for the accessory and that no further spurs were taken from this one.

hence my original question.

As i have a spur from a ring effectively with two circuits coming from that spur .
one feeding an exterior light and another the attic lights .

Is there a legal way under the regs to use that spur to do both of the jobs .

 

[Richard Burns]

Your first method is the best method but requires more work. Des56 has said the easiest and still compliant method.

So long as the single socket that the spur is taken from is part of the ring then the 2.5mm cable up to the double socket is fine, but you need to fuse down from that point.
Remove the double socket, fix in a surface mount dual accessory box, use one side of the box to connect the spur supply to a double pole switched fused spur with a 3 amp or 5 amp fuse.
Take the lighting neutrals to the load side of the SFCU (obviously connect all the CPCs). Take the line load to the next half of the box to a two gang switch and individually switch the exterior light and the attic light.

 

[telectrix]

make the existing spur socket a part of the RFC, then add a 3A FCU for the lights. job done safely and cheaply.

 

[Mark_Burgess]

You cannot take a 2.5 spur off a 2.5 ring. The 2.5 ring effectively has a cross section of ~5mm. The fuse protecting the ring will be rated to protect a 5mm circuit; therefore the 2.5mm spur is not protected by the fuse and may fail if there is a fault/overload.

This is a safety concern.

fuse that spur.


make sure the plugs are appropriately fused too.

Do you have a copy of the regs?

You may want to check out appendix 15.