Rewire Issues - Advice Needed

[Ohmslaw]

I recently had the house (3 bed semi) rewired and have come across some things that are causing me concern. I’ve made the Electricuan aware but have not yet had a proper response so I just want to get some alternative “expert” opinion.

Basically three issues.
1. The upstairs and downstairs sockets are now fed by an MCB, Type B rated 16A. I’m of the opinion these are probably too small and should be at least 20 if not 32A? For info we have 16 x 13A sockets downstairs alone. The reason ( I think) for it being 16A is explained below.
2. Downstairs, instead of rewiring a 60 year old property as a ring main, the Electrician has connected the sockets as radial spurs and fed them with 2.5mm cables from the ceiling void. Hence, I think, the reason why the breaker is only 16A? I don’t know why they were not run as a ring but shouldn’t the cable be at least 4mm, thus allowing a biggger MCB?
3. There was a single 13A socket which we had an extension block connected too, feeding tv, sky box, dvd etc. I wanted this changing to 4 new sockets (two doubles) to get rid of the extension block. The Electrician has also wired this as a spur and a spur off a spur, all run again in 2.5mm.

What are your thoughts on this and what would be your advice?

 

[TJ Anderson]

Kitchen appliances aside, would a standard domestic radial circuit get anywhere near 16 amps?

No. With the kitchen seperate and heating separate (CH probably), very unlikely.

 

[Midwest]

Any chance you could post a picture of the fuseboard?

Along with an redacted EIC etc.

 

[richy3333]

At fist sight it doesn’t sound like there is anything technically wrong; just a difference between what you thought you were getting/asking for and what the sparks did?

 

[Midwest]

I dunno (not trying to fuel the OP's disappointment), does seem a bit unusual?

 

[shaun1]

A note on point 3 - a spur, and rules on spurs from spurs etc only really apply to ring final circuts. This is because the protective device is sized for overload protection of two cables in parralel (each leg of the ring) and a spur wired in a single cable from this point would not be suficiently protected from overload.

A radial circuit (it sounds like this is what you have) can be split and branched off at any point, providing it is not overloaded.

Do you have 2 16A circuits? One for upstairs and one for down? If you have a seperate 3rd circuit for the kitchen (idealy 32a) you will probably have no issues with overloading. Things that could cause problems would be large loads such as heaters, tumble dryers, irons and possibly vaccum cleaners. But this should have all been considered as part of the design process.

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Nobody competent is going to rewire circuits serving a sizable chunk of a dwellings socket outlets on a 16a radial. I'd be very suspicious.