Power Regulations

Danger Phoenix

Danger Phoenix

Danger Phoenix

Soldato
Joined
21 Jul 2004
Posts
6,360
Location
Harrow, UK
Is it normal for all the sockets in a 5 bedroom house to go through one fuse circuit? Five student bedrooms draw a lot of power, and all through one fuse?

The breaker has just tripped and it refuses to be reset, even though we have gone round the house unplugging every single item.

I thought that the circuits were usually separated by floor...

Are there any regulations for this?

We have been forced to daisy chain extension leads from the kitchen, which is on a separate circuit, to power the modem and router so we can do some work on the laptops available in this house.
 
yep, usually sockets one circuit, lights another circuit, etc.

You sure you unglugged everything, I had that. Turned out it was a broken fridge tripping it. Unplug every single last item and turn of every socket. reset, then switch one on at a time and find the problem.
 
AcidHell2 said:
yep, usually sockets one circuit, lights another circuit, etc.

You sure you unglugged everything, I had that. Turned out it was a broken fridge tripping it. Unplug every single last item and turn of every socket. reset, then switch one on at a time and find the problem.
Click to expand...

The fridge in the kitchen is on a different circuit, and that is working fine... at least my food will be fine.

We are certain we have gone round the whole house, unplugged everything and made sure the sockets are all off.

The socket switch is not tripping, but is causing the reset switch to trip. Manually switching off the socket switch and then setting the reset switch back on produces a stable system where everything else works.
 
Danger Phoenix said:
The fridge in the kitchen is on a different circuit, and that is working fine... at least my food will be fine.

We are certain we have gone round the whole house, unplugged everything and made sure the sockets are all off.

The socket switch is not tripping, but is causing the reset switch to trip. Manually switching off the socket switch and then setting the reset switch back on produces a stable system where everything works... apart from the sockets.
Click to expand...

if your sure you have unplugged everything and turned all sockets of, then it might well be a wiring problem. However sometimes they add funny little extras on to a circuit. So double check everything on that circuit is off. sometimes best just to switch every single switch off for all circuits.
 
hi, (i'm his housemate - and know mostly how the circuit breakers work) i'v tried this, switching everything except the sockets off and then switching on the main power, but this still does the same thing!

don't think i can do anything else without opening something up and as i aint a certified electrician and this aint my own house, i can't really touch anything!
 
llaadd said:
hi, (i'm his housemate - and know mostly how the circuit breakers work) i'v tried this, switching everything except the sockets off and then switching on the main power, but this still does the same thing!
Click to expand...

Try switching the actual sockets off as well, even if unplugged. If you haven't already. Other than that it's electrician time.
 
As to the original question, theres no fixed max number of sockets on a ring final or radial, but when you design a circuit you design it to handle the antipated loading it is likely to be subjected to, putting all the sockets in a 5 bed house on a single rfc is unlikely to be considered to meet this these days (though it may have done 25 years ago or whatever when people had less appliances)

anyway, hung any new pictures recently?...
 
A sparky mate of mine came round when i first bought my house. All sockets were on the one fuse, he said it was ok but not advisable. Got him to install a new fuse box and he wired a seperate fuse for Upstairs sockets, upstairs lights, downstairs sockets exc kitchen, downstairs lights, kitchen, central heating, garage, smoke alarms. He reckoned this was the best way to have it although it was probably a bit of overkill and would not usually go to those lengths in a normal house installation.
 
Electrical regulations are less stringent for rented property than gas ones the landlord dos however have a legal obligation to ensure the wiring is safe it just isn't stipulated tat it must be inspected anually like the gas boiler. If you suspect the wiring is dodgy or not fit for purpose I would put it in writing to the landlord and request he gets a professional to inspect it. Students pay a lot of money in rent and the house should be safe and fit for purpose.
 
The odd thing was that the power load in this house had been consistent for about 10 days, so why overload now :confused:

The landlord also said that everything had been checked by a qualified electrician and was deemed to be alright :confused:
 
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