Ring Circuit Question

[dancematic66]

Hi all,

In my house I have a ring main which covers two floors, from which I have created two spurs with 2.5mm cable.

I am drawing 3000W on each spur and on the ring sockets probably around 500w making a total of 6500w.

Do you think this is dangerous as it is exceeding the 24A rating on 2.5mm cable which the circuit is wired with or is it ok as the ring circuit will allow larger current's than the cable rating states (In theory)?

Thanks for your help!

If I haven't explained my query in great enough detail please let me know and I will elaborate further.

 

[telectrix]

as long as each unfused spur is 13A, then that's OK. dont forget that the current drawn by the 2 spurs is shared by the 2 legs of the ring. only problem would be if the spurs were near to 1 end of the ring, tham the current through the short leg would be greater than that in the longer leg.

 

[dancematic66]

Hi telectrix,

Thanks for the reply.

The two spurs are running a max current of 13A however I can't determine at which point of the ring that spurs are connected and now I'm worried about your last comment.. :-/

 

[kingeri]

Basically, the load on a ring needs to be reasonably distributed to avoid overloading one leg, so you wouldn't want 26 amps being pulled at one end of a ring.

You don't say what the spurs are supplying, if they are fixed appliances at 3kw (like heaters) then they should have had their own circuits installed, back to the consumer unit, on 16 amp circuit breakers.