Socket ring regulations

[lockhes]

Morning is there a regulation to say the sockets in a kitchen need to be on there own ring

Its a 2 bed bungalow with a dining room and hall and has 2 rings 1 for bedrooms and kitchen the other for hall and living area

Somebody else has done a pir and that's 1 of faults on list personally I can't see anything wrong with it

If I was rewiring house I'd put kitchen separate but it's like that now

 

[Guest111]

In short no! although a lot of sparkies consider it good practice due to the high demand in kitchens these days,although in a small property the load on that circuit probably wouldn,t be excessive.I find sometimes that some sparkies seem to get confused between what is a reg and what is just good practice,and then there are also some who just try and create work.

 

[Octopus]

The EICR is wrong, in fact a bungalow this small having 2 socket circuits is a plus.

 

[ackbarthestar]

There is nothing in the regs that says you have to use rfcs for socket outlets. It could be wired in radials and be just as acceptable.
Its a design choice and should have been picked up by the previous inspector.

If he thought that somehow the kitchen sockets were detrimental to the rest of the electrical installation then this should have been stated with reasons.
What else did he fail this installation on?

 

[trev]

I wonder what this "inspector" would do with the first house we bought, when we got the keys the whole place was on one RFC.

 

[MarkieSparkie]

Morning is there a regulation to say the sockets in a kitchen need to be on there own ring

Its a 2 bed bungalow with a dining room and hall and has 2 rings 1 for bedrooms and kitchen the other for hall and living area

Somebody else has done a pir and that's 1 of faults on list personally I can't see anything wrong with it

If I was rewiring house I'd put kitchen separate but it's like that now

Maybe the inspector was concerned by the poor distribution of the loads on the Bedrooms/Kitchen RFC, but has poorly articulated this point in his report.

 

[lockhes]

Theres a few daft things like sleeving and grommets tidy some cables up and install earth rod due to no earth in property

 

[somersetsparks]

I test many, many houses with one ring, I have never yet seen any overloaded cables or had any complaints of tripping due to overload etc. Many of these are 3/4 bed properties.
I see it as my job to test the installation is safe as presented, not to pick out petty points.
Some EICR's I have read have had c3's for accessories 'yellowed'!?!

 

[Adam W]

It seems having a separate ring for the kitchen is just one of those things which people blindly follow because 'that's the way it's done', like installing a radial for upstairs and one for downstairs. In many situations it makes sense, but that doesn't mean it's a regulation.

I can appreciate what the designer was doing in this situation - someone might be unlikely to be watching TV in bed and/or drying their hair while cooking Christmas Dinner, but the telly might be on in the lounge.

 

[nickblake]

If it tests out ok not a problem i had a 4 bed house 3 floors 1 ring tested spot on only had 6 sockets in the whole house mind

 

[somersetsparks]

Would somebody whinge about the standard upstairs/downstairs rings arrrangement, or the left/right? All good and proper methods! I agree its good practise to do a kitchen/rest of house rings arrangement but as long as they test o.k. its not really for the inspector to fret about.

 

[Adam W]

Would somebody whinge about the standard upstairs/downstairs rings arrrangement, or the left/right? All good and proper methods! I agree its good practise to do a kitchen/rest of house rings arrangement but as long as they test o.k. its not really for the inspector to fret about.

I've heard people whinging about the left/right arrangement before. I'm sure some of them were 'electricians' on here as well. "... But it's s'posed to be upstairs/downstairs..."

 

[electric will]

I've used the front and back arrangement for a couple of rewires, much easier running the ring like this, still maybe separate circuit for kitchen,depending in size of house. Consumer unit also labeled correctly of corse

 

[Strima]

I've got a four bedroom house with one RFC and lots of spurs. When I get round to doing the kitchen the cooker and shower circuits will be used to proved two very nice radials as the kitchen layout is complete dog toffee.

The RFC has lasted since 1975 with no problems, apart from the kitchen installers running four spurs off one socket that just happens to power the fridge, dishwasher, washing machine and lighting spur... WINNER... :lol: Fridge is now gone and wifey has been told in no uncertain terms to only use one large appliance at a time, kitchen fitters, don't you just love them...