Inexperienced in house rewires. Guidance needed.

[OhmSweetOhm]

Hi people,

Gonna rewire my house in the forthcoming weeks but I myself work on commercial and industrial projects and have only newly wired houses as an apprentice 2-3 year ago so I am unfamiliar with what should and shouldn't be done in house rewires.
I plan to use this thread for any advice that you lot would like to offer and for myself to ask any questions which I happen to think of!

So my first few are...

• Should outside sockets be part of a ring main or should they be spurred off a ring main?
• Does a boiler require it's own dedicated circuit?
• Is it legal to run cables behind skirting boards or must they be run underneath the floorboards and chased into the walls?

Thanks, appreciate it!

 

[Rauer]

Have I said it cannot be a spur- no ,
The op simply asked if they were meant to be on the ring or spur'd off , to which I personally prefer to keep them on the ring !
Has the op said he is installing a dual rcd board -no
For all we know it could be a main switch and rcbo's

How do you know he isnt installing his cables in earthed Galv conduit so he doesn't have to put rcd protection onto applicable circuits????

 

[sparks1973]

Have I said it cannot be a spur- no ,
The op simply asked if they were meant to be on the ring or spur'd off , to which I personally prefer to keep them on the ring !
Has the op said he is installing a dual rcd board -no
For all we know it could be a main switch and rcbo's

How do you know he isnt installing his cables in earthed Galv conduit so he doesn't have to put rcd protection onto applicable circuits????

OK..nothing wrong there mate....
it just seemed a bit argumentative..thats all....

 

[Rauer]

If you think I am being argumentative, you seriously ( and I'm not having a dig here ) need to read through some of your past posts and review what you have written before you post on future

 

[sparks1973]

If you think I am being argumentative, you seriously ( and I'm not having a dig here ) need to read through some of your past posts and review what you have written before you post on future

i know my shortcomings Rauer....but i also know that its perfectly acceptable to spur from a convenient point......i also know safe zones.......and also know the advantages & shortcomings of additional protection by means of RCD.....

 

[Rauer]

i know my shortcomings Rauer....but i also know that its perfectly acceptable to spur from a convenient point......i also know safe zones.......and also know the advantages & shortcomings of additional protection by means of RCD.....

It's good to hear that you are conversant with the regs

 

[Paul.M]

The op comes from an industrial background as he says in his op. Buy a copy of the part P building regs and get Trev to come around to look at your install design before doing anything.

I know what you blokes from the Toon are like, you'll look at the job for 20 mins then spend the rest of the afternoon talking about it over a few beers. Can I come as well?

 

[sparks1973]

It's good to hear that you are conversant with the regs

we try Rauer...we try..

 

[Geordie Spark]

we try Rauer...we try..

Good lad !! :wink_smile:

 

[tombrooker84]

I've just been reading through this thread. Seems like a lot of talk about putting the boiler it on its own circuit. Why can't you just install a single 13a socket near by and leave the boiler on a plug with a 3 Amp fuse, that way if you do ever have a problem with the electrics on its rfc, you can just run an extension lead until you get it fixed.

 

[Paul.M]

That why some of us like to put it on its own circuit via a rcbo as said before. On a rewire like this I would because we have the oppertunity to do so.

If the boiler circuit goes down you can plug in heaters and if the ring/s are down you still have heating and hot water.

 

[thekingiam]

aren't boilers classed as fixed equipment, would a plug and socket be classed as local isolation?

 

[Paul.M]

No plug tops I'm affraid. read eg 554.3.3

 

[thekingiam]

that's what i thought ,so no plug tops tombrooker84.:bobby:

 

[Paul.M]

Boilers are not as straight forward as you think. Read section 554 to see what i mean. All information of the install is needed before installing supply to a boiler. Earthing system, bonding to outer shell, rcd, double pole issolator, no plug tops, type of boiler etc etc etc.

 

[HandySparks]

No plug tops I'm affraid. read eg 554.3.3

No mate. The heading for 554.3 is "Water heaters having immersed and uninsulated heating elements", so nothing to do with the supply to a normal gas boiler. So unless there's something else in the regs, then a plug and socket is OK.