Three rings too much?

[AP1990LTN]

The go to nowadays seems to be to install 3x Ring circuits, upstairs, downstairs, kitchen however I recently tested a three bed house that had every socket bar one on a 20A breaker, on this circuit was a bathroom 13A fan heater too. Tenant has lived there for 13 years never had anything trip. Now either we always go overkill or the circuit breaker is welded closed.......

 

[Dustydazzler]

3 bed hours I currently live in as built in 1988 and has one 32a ring for the entire house. It has never tripped in the 5 years we have been living here.

in fact the house only has 4 circuits in total , cooker , power , immersion , lights

 

[Dartlec]

3 bed hours I currently live in as built in 1988 and has one 32a ring for the entire house. It has never tripped in the 5 years we have been living here.

in fact the house only has 4 circuits in total , cooker , power , immersion , lights

Sounds like an EICR wet dream!

 

[hasel5]

I am the same one ring does the lot never had a issue. In fact the ring runs round the first floor and every socket on the ground is spurred off a upstairs one. 3 bed house and garage off the ring as well.

 

[nicebutdim]

3 bed hours I currently live in as built in 1988 and has one 32a ring for the entire house. It has never tripped in the 5 years we have been living here.

in fact the house only has 4 circuits in total , cooker , power , immersion , lights

If the time came when it needed a rewire (mice, lightning strike or whatever), what would you choose to do?

 

[Dustydazzler]

If the time came when it needed a rewire (mice, lightning strike or whatever), what would you choose to do?

for myself I would probably do , lights up , lights down , ring up , ring down and cooker. All on their own rcbos. With mains linked smokes on one of the lighting feeds...Immersion supply is currently not connected / redundant as we now have a combi

 

[Dustydazzler]

I am the same one ring does the lot never had a issue. In fact the ring runs round the first floor and every socket on the ground is spurred off a upstairs one. 3 bed house and garage off the ring as well.

our garage is fed off a spur (no switch) from the back of a kitchen socket , previous owners did this I reckon as other garages on the estate dint have any electric.
there was about 15 double sockets in the garage as previous owner used it as a work shop. i Have subsequently removed all bar 3.
but still remains a spur off the kitchen....

naughty me

 

[pc1966]

My own flat has a 20A breaker for the ring, and that is also the kitchen (bar the cooker supply/kettle outlet). In 20+ years has only tripped around 3 times with the 13A fuse blowing in the plug.

The reality is 20A is enough for most places that don't try to run a dishwasher, washing machine, and tumble dry simultaneously.

I think in my case it was a 20A fuse, as originally wired in MICC so probable Zs too high for 30A fuse to clear in under 0.4s. Then a 20A breaker to replace it...

 

[pc1966]

I think the main reason for multiple rings is more to do with fault isolation, and not so much to do with total load. Out side of a few big appliances (that have dedicated radials) I doubt the 32A breaker on a ring ever trips on overload (instead of fault).

 

[Dustydazzler]

Agree , I certainly remember once split boards came out we started to add more circuits to keep more off the rcd side

such as dedicated radials for fridges , freezers , boilers , immersions all in their own radials away from the rcd side

keeping just the general power (sockets) on the rcd

we would end up with about 7 circuits on the non rcd side

 

[littlespark]

I got called out to an old cottage one evening last week. Customer said fuse blew when a light bulb blew, so he swapped the two lighting fuses. Still didn’t work, so phoned me.

old 6 gang Wylex fuseboard.
1. 5A fuse. No cables coming out
2. 30A. 2x 2.5’s
3. 5A. 2x 1.5’s
4. 30A. 6mm cable, but no fuse
5. 15A. 2.5 cable, no fuse
6. 30A. 6mm, no fuse

so he swapped a blown fuse with one that didn’t have fuse wire in it anyway.
All the sockets were off the one ring, and most of his space heating was plug in panel heaters.
I didn’t see a boiler, but reckon a coal fire to heat water? Guessing a shower, cooker and immersion heater are not in use or removed.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

The diversity advantage of the 32A circuit (ring or radial) really shows, when you can have one circuit powering a whole house safely. Our house had one ring bearing the brunt of the load, washing machine, dishwasher, tumble dryer, microwave, rest of kitchen, dining room and lounge. 30A, never tripped once in 30 years.

Much of the world can't do this, they need a dryer circuit, a washing machine circuit, a microwave circuit... We can plug anything anywhere and with a ring, still only need to work with 2.5mm², and people here complain about rings being a pain!