Advice on rewiring a house?

[summerdays]

My new abode needs to be rewired and I knew that when we bought it. But how do I decide how many sockets and other bits to put in. Anything would be an increase as most rooms have one single socket!!! and we are a family that likes electrical things. Currently it has only one ring main for the entire house!

I know I could base it on what we had in the previous house, but I also want to future proof it as best as I can. We are happy with the electrician that we have got to do the work, but we are meeting him to discuss what exactly we require later this week.

Any advice gratefully received.

 

[subaqua]

my speciality .

ideally 1 socket for each appliance so if you have games consoles DVD Sky etc by the TV you want at least 3 twin sockets behind the TV.
kitchen sockets are hard to decide without seeing a basic plan but we have 5 twin sockets in a galley kitchen and i wish I had put in more
minimum I would wire on a rewire is
1 ring for kitchen general sockets
1 ring for kitchen white goods
1 ring for downstairs
1 ring upstairs
1 lighting circuit down
1 lighting circuit up
Central heating
immersion
Cooker
get a smoke detector circuit wired at same time and get lithium battery interconnected smoke alarms. will put about £200 on the price
split dual RCD board

IET have a guide in the onsite guide and if you PM me an email address i can get the info to you.

MAKE SURE THE GUY IS PART P REGISTERED. as much as i hate advising you to as it is part of building regulations.

 

[Spinney]

No help to you summerdays, but I might need a bit of electrical work doing in the Bristol area in the not-too-distant future, so a recommedation for a good sparks could be very useful!

 

[summerdays]

Wow that is more ring mains than I was expecting (but then I was basing it on the previous house that had one downstairs ring and one upstairs ring mains), but you are obviously better qualified than me to know (hence why I was asking). Current circuit board only has 4 or else 5 fuses, so we know we are getting that replaced and we have been told not to run anything that consumes lots of electricity until he has done at least the basic stuff. (We even have one round pin socket though we think it isn't actually connected to the circuit - haven't got anything with round pins to use it anyway!!! ).

Kitchen is to be extended - this is a project house but we fell in love with it!!!

Will let you know after he does the work ... so far this is on a recommendation from a friend, he seems to be very straight laced according to them ... so absolutely everything by the rule book ... but so far not one to give lots of suggestions. However I've had work by a couple of others in the past so should have a name or two if required.

Thanks for the offer subaqua - that could be useful - I will pm you.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

my speciality .

ideally 1 socket for each appliance so if you have games consoles DVD Sky etc by the TV you want at least 3 twin sockets behind the TV.
kitchen sockets are hard to decide without seeing a basic plan but we have 5 twin sockets in a galley kitchen and i wish I had put in more
minimum I would wire on a rewire is
1 ring for kitchen general sockets
1 ring for kitchen white goods
1 ring for downstairs
1 ring upstairs
1 lighting circuit down
1 lighting circuit up
Central heating
immersion
Cooker
get a smoke detector circuit wired at same time and get lithium battery interconnected smoke alarms. will put about £200 on the price
split dual RCD board

IET have a guide in the onsite guide and if you PM me an email address i can get the info to you.

MAKE SURE THE GUY IS PART P REGISTERED. as much as i hate advising you to as it is part of building regulations.

i agree about the part p bollocks, but yeah make sure he's registered or it'll cost you a lot more if the local council find out.

but ring circuits in this day and age? really? i've been doing 16a and 20a radials for over a decade now and the niceic recommend them as well. rings are a pain the arse to to test and easily bridged by incompetent kitchen fitters and diy-ers.

 

[summerdays]

(Well I would pm you if I could work out how ) I'm sure I've done it before?

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

just click on his name, then 'start a conversation', that's it, easy peasy.

 

[subaqua]

i agree about the part p bollocks, but yeah make sure he's registered or it'll cost you a lot more if the local council find out.

but ring circuits in this day and age? really? i've been doing 16a and 20a radials for over a decade now and the niceic recommend them as well. rings are a pain the arse to to test and easily bridged by incompetent kitchen fitters and diy-ers.

but it cuts down on copper costs and on the cost of the stupidly sized Consumer unit for all those radials. remember a 20A radial has a maximum floor area of 50m sq ( when i went to college it was a 2 2 2 circuit- 20A device, 2.5mm sq cable ,20m sq floor area) which is a fairly small area the 30A radial gives more loading capacitybut the copper costs go up and 4 mm in the back of a socket in a domestic environment can lead to loose connections, as most boxes are 25mm and thast just not deep enough IMHO .

If i had unlimited budgets i would recommend a radial for all Kitchen white goods circuits on their own RCBO on a 3rd section of a triple Consumer unit ( Wylex do a nice one in the NHRS range that gives 15 overall ways but thats not close to what i could use )

16A doesn't really give you much loading capacity , although the need to move a 3Kw heater round a house has diminished somewhat but not gone completely. a COMPETENT spark should have no probs with a ringmain, and part P kitchen fitters should be( although very rarely are) competent. Did a call out at the weekend for a friend of a friend and the kitchen ring extension wired just over 2 years ago ( big orange coloured DIY chain installers) it was cabled in 1.5 !!!! and left plenty of loose conections. No completion certifiucate issued but a lovely notification from a part p scheme provider kitchen fitter was a part P sun spark* central heating had packed in so they had a few fan heaters running and wondered why one of the sockets had a brown spot developing . I made safe and left them to contact the installers

* a nefarious individual who does a 2 week course rather than a 5 year apprenticeship, then claims to be an electrician but in reality struggles to fit a 13A plugtop.

i hope you have commented on the proposals for part p

 

[summerdays]

just click on his name, then 'start a conversation', that's it, easy peasy.

Thanks I was looking for something to say "PM"

 

[BigonaBianchi]

Iwent through all of this last summer...now it's all done I spemnd most evenings with a candle on

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

but it cuts down on copper costs and on the cost of the stupidly sized Consumer unit for all those radials. remember a 20A radial has a maximum floor area of 50m sq ( when i went to college it was a 2 2 2 circuit- 20A device, 2.5mm sq cable ,20m sq floor area) which is a fairly small area the 30A radial gives more loading capacitybut the copper costs go up and 4 mm in the back of a socket in a domestic environment can lead to loose connections, as most boxes are 25mm and thast just not deep enough IMHO .

If i had unlimited budgets i would recommend a radial for all Kitchen white goods circuits on their own RCBO on a 3rd section of a triple Consumer unit ( Wylex do a nice one in the NHRS range that gives 15 overall ways but thats not close to what i could use )

16A doesn't really give you much loading capacity , although the need to move a 3Kw heater round a house has diminished somewhat but not gone completely. a COMPETENT spark should have no probs with a ringmain, and part P kitchen fitters should be( although very rarely are) competent. Did a call out at the weekend for a friend of a friend and the kitchen ring extension wired just over 2 years ago ( big orange coloured DIY chain installers) it was cabled in 1.5 !!!! and left plenty of loose conections. No completion certifiucate issued but a lovely notification from a part p scheme provider kitchen fitter was a part P sun spark* central heating had packed in so they had a few fan heaters running and wondered why one of the sockets had a brown spot developing . I made safe and left them to contact the installers

* a nefarious individual who does a 2 week course rather than a 5 year apprenticeship, then claims to be an electrician but in reality struggles to fit a 13A plugtop.

i hope you have commented on the proposals for part p

sorry but i think your coming at from the wrong angle.

a cct for the kitch
power ds
power us

3 ccts using less cable of 2.5mmon 20a rcb's gives more or less same available power of 2 rings traditionally used. less chances of it being bodged later and unbalanced loads on each leg (do you really measure the distances between each socket and ensure each leg is the same? if not one leg is effectively running a 32a rcb on 2.5mm single not a ring). the iee did a full reasearch paper on this, it's in the archives somewhere.


edit: yeah i did, but i'm pretty much out of the game now, i'm retraining to be a mental health nurse and then a masters in cbt. if they make the part p the same as the gas, i.e., mandatory, it'll be:
a. a license to print money
b. will make the countries electrical installations safer (eventually).

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Iwent through all of this last summer...now it's all done I spemnd most evenings with a candle on

hehehe!!

 

[subaqua]

sorry but i think your coming at from the wrong angle.

a cct for the kitch
power ds
power us

3 ccts using less cable of 2.5mmon 20a rcb's gives more or less same available power of 2 rings traditionally used. less chances of it being bodged later and unbalanced loads on each leg (do you really measure the distances between each socket and ensure each leg is the same? if not one leg is effectively running a 32a rcb on 2.5mm single not a ring). the iee did a full reasearch paper on this, it's in the archives somewhere.


edit: yeah i did, but i'm pretty much out of the game now, i'm retraining to be a mental health nurse and then a masters in cbt. if they make the part p the same as the gas, i.e., mandatory, it'll be:
a. a license to print money
b. will make the countries electrical installations safer (eventually).

depends which way you want to read the papers for which is better. both have advantages and disadvantages. again , a competent electrician will know about balancing the legs to ensure Kirchoff doesn'y bite yer bum . personally i think a ring in domestics is far better. commercial installs then radials definitley.

 

[dellzeqq]

I think I might know the answer to this one, but I'd be interested in the sermon from the mount. Why radials in commercial premises?

 

[subaqua]

Iwent through all of this last summer...now it's all done I spemnd most evenings with a candle on

yup, all the fancy lighting here generally stays off and we have some nice candles . currently burning a lovely honey and chocolate smelling one. I am not a ponce BTW.