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!

 

[oldtimer]

If it is your own house put in a 12 way CU and then you can have seperate circuits for the outside socket (i would make this a RCBO) alarms,central heating,etc

 

[trev]

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?

20 minutes? you mean I have to wait 20 minutes before going for a pint to discuss the job?
No sense of urgency then Paul?

 

[Paul.M]

Handysparks:-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.

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.

I was replying to this post regarding boilers. Gas central heating can be put on a plug, I assume because its only for the ignition and controller and not an heating element. Just so there's no confussion mate.

 

[Des 56]

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

My veiw is the regulation(554.3.3) states you cannot use a plug and socket for an electrode water heater/boiler,but a plug and socket (unswitched) on a central heating boiler would have local isolation by unplugging the flex


Apology from me Paul,our posts crossed in the post :smiley2:

 

[oldtimer]

My veiw is the regulation(554.3.3) states you cannot use a plug and socket for an electrode water heater/boiler,but a plug and socket (unswitched) on a central heating boiler would have local isolation by unplugging the flex

An immersions draws about 12 amps plus they have always been placed on their own circuits as some fools wire them into rings but a central heating boiler only needs a 3 or 5 amp fuse so the confusion is that people interpit an immersion as a bioler hence the mix up

 

[HandySparks]

I was replying to this post regarding boilers. Gas central heating can be put on a plug, I assume because its only for the ignition and controller and not an heating element. Just so there's no confussion mate.

Sounds like we have different things in mind when the word "boiler" is used. I think of a central heating boiler rather than an immersion heater in a HW cylinder.

 

[Paul.M]

Sounds like we have different things in mind when the word "boiler" is used. I think of a central heating boiler rather than an immersion heater in a HW cylinder.

Thats a point, are we talking about an immersion heater or a gas central heating boiler on this thread? Hope the op comes back to us on that one.

 

[Geordie Spark]

Sounds like we have different things in mind when the word "boiler" is used. I think of a central heating boiler rather than an immersion heater in a HW cylinder.

Just to add to the confusion, there's also an electric central heating boiler that goes in the place of a conventional gas central heating boiler (i.e. NOT a Combi type) and this - I think - is about 6 Kw.

 

[oldtimer]

Just to add to the confusion, there's also an electric central heating boiler that goes in the place of a conventional gas central heating boiler (i.e. NOT a Combi type) and this - I think - is about 6 Kw.

Yea but dont think you can spur that off a ring lol

 

[Geordie Spark]

Yea but dont think you can spur that off a ring lol

Well I wouldn't & hope you wouldn't either ....... but you can bet your Multi-function tester that some daft sod will !!!!

 

[OhmSweetOhm]

Thats a point, are we talking about an immersion heater or a gas central heating boiler on this thread? Hope the op comes back to us on that one.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. Appreciate it a lot!
As for the "immersion heater or central heating boiler?"- It is the latter.

 

[Guitarist]

Just to add to the confusion, there's also an electric central heating boiler that goes in the place of a conventional gas central heating boiler (i.e. NOT a Combi type) and this - I think - is about 6 Kw.

Most I have had dealings with are 10 or 12kw

 

[Des 56]

Most I have had dealings with are 10 or 12kw

In my case its been 6 or 9KW

For interest, they come in so many rated models
I found on this site these ratings 2 ,4 6. 7,5 9 10. 11.5 12 14.4
Electric Boilers, Electric Heating & Combi Boilers

 

[Guitarist]

In my case its been 6 or 9KW

For interest, they come in so many rated models
I found on this site these ratings 2 ,4 6. 7,5 9 10. 11.5 12 14.4
Electric Boilers, Electric Heating & Combi Boilers

Fair point Des. All depends on the size of the heating system.

 

[Geordie Spark]

Most I have had dealings with are 10 or 12kw

I've not had any dealings with them at all.

I just remember seeing them advertised when they first hit the market a few years ago, & seem to remember them being 6kw.