Weird electrical consumer unit labeling

jez9999

jez9999

jez9999

Associate
Joined
30 Nov 2010
Posts
38
Location
Northampton
I just gave a rudimentary test to my consumer unit circuits (I bought this as a new build 6 years ago, electrics certified and everything) and I was... surprised at the labeling. The "Kitchen sockets" breaker controls the sockets in the kitchen, but also those in upstairs bedrooms 2 & 4. The "First floor sockets" breaker controls the sockets in the upstairs landing, upstairs bedrooms 1 & 3, but also those in the lounge (ground floor!)

Is this somehow normal, especially in a new build house? Seems like the sockets are arranged in more of a "left side of house" / "right side of house" configuration.
 
Last edited:
Its normal on all UK houses to have ring mains arranged that way to distribute load. The labels come with the consumer unit and that's all most sparkies use - they choose the most appropriate one and that's it. Some builders (ours) will stick a written list of what's actually connected to each RCBO on the inside of the switch cover but most won't.
 
I thought it was common to split them across RCD so that is one guess some lights and sockets still work on each floor.
I did mine differently and did each floor on its own, same with lights. Kitchen on its own and garage on its own. I regret doing rings rather than radial.

Documented mine with accurate labels and also in a spreadsheet with wire sizes and what not.
 
Last edited:
jez9999 said:
Wow that seems rather lazy. Why bother with the labels?
Click to expand...

Most likely because not labelling the CU at all would have got noticed and flagged up. But not one would have checked carefully enought to make sure it's correct.

It's also possible, because new houses are wired in two stages, the CU wasn't installed by the same company who did the actual wiring. You've think they'd have noticed at the testing phase but stranger things have happened. Unfortunately, house builders are always looking to save money, so often corners are cut and work gets rushed.
 
robj20 said:
I thought it was common to split them across RCD so that is one guess
Click to expand...
It was/is more a case that (for example) you can't put kitchen + living room on the same ring mains because the load may be too much.

For most of the last 50 years on 4 bed new-build houses you probably had a double socket and not much more in the third bedroom/boxroom so its not unusual to have that on a "downstairs" circuit. Another is the landing socket which is pretty much guaranteed to be wired into the same circuit as the sockets at the side of the staircase or hall.
 
Last edited:
Simply put, don't trust any circuit labelling in the consumer unit and test the circuit before working on it. Every time. That way you can be healthily surprised if it's correct and not surprisingly dead if it it's wrong.

We've lived in this house for almost seven years and I still come across electrical bodges that either a dubiously qualified electrician or ignorant diy'er thought was acceptable. Today's example - I wanted to simply replace a faulty double gang socket but when I took the old one off I found 5 twin & earth cables wired to the old socket. That's 5 live wires (2x2.5mm & 3x1.5m) rammed in to a terminal designed for either 3x2.5mm or 2x4mm wires. Impressive that they actually managed to get the wires in each terminal but what was less impressive was the fact they'd spurred two unfused radials and a lighting circuit (two ceiling lights) from a final ring.
 
Mysterae_ said:
Simply put, don't trust any circuit labelling in the consumer unit and test the circuit before working on it. Every time. That way you can be healthily surprised if it's correct and not surprisingly dead if it it's wrong.

We've lived in this house for almost seven years and I still come across electrical bodges that either a dubiously qualified electrician or ignorant diy'er thought was acceptable. Today's example - I wanted to simply replace a faulty double gang socket but when I took the old one off I found 5 twin & earth cables wired to the old socket. That's 5 live wires (2x2.5mm & 3x1.5m) rammed in to a terminal designed for either 3x2.5mm or 2x4mm wires. Impressive that they actually managed to get the wires in each terminal but what was less impressive was the fact they'd spurred two unfused radials and a lighting circuit (two ceiling lights) from a final ring.
Click to expand...
The whole unfused radial off a ring is an odd one for me, the regs seem to presume you're going to use 2.5mm hence the limit to a single spur or then requiring a FCU. But if you were to use suitable gauge wire i dont see the problem (assuming the socket is okay with 2 x 2.5mm and a 4mm, MK Logic Plus for instance can take 3 x 4mm.
 
Last edited:
robj20 said:
The whole unfused radial off a ring is an odd one for me, the regs seem to presume you're going to use 2.5mm hence the limit to a single spur or then requiring a FCU. But if you were to use suitable gauge wire i dont see the problem (assuming the socket is okay with 2 x 2.5mm and a 4mm, MK Logic Plus for instance can take 3 x 4mm.
Click to expand...

I agree, I would presume it's to help identify and reduce the risk a spur being added to a spur again and again, over time. A fused spur also protects the added circuit to 13A instead of the 20A or 32A of the MCB.
Good info on the MKs taking 3 x4mm, seems made for taking a spur off a 4mm radial ;). I suppose I could use one of those to reinstate the socket I removed but it bothers me.
 
Vestas said:
Says the moron who's been in the house for 6 YEARS without having a problem or even noticing :cry:
Click to expand...
That's a pretty dumb comment. I've seen videos of electricians tackling electrical nightmare installations that have been working "fine" for years. Yeah, they sometimes work fine for years. Still seems like dodgy labeling.

Taking of dodgy labeling, has anyone *ever* seen a socket like this in the hallway of a UK house? I'm wondering whether the electrician just used an old faceplate he had lying around:
3.png
 
Last edited:
jez9999 said:
I'm wondering whether the electrician just used an old faceplate he had lying around:
Click to expand...

I would expect so, or it was a joke between the electrician and the customer.

It could just possibly be to get round having to install an RCD, there was an edition of the regs where RDCs were required if electrical equipment was being used outside. But I think that's a bit far fetched.
 
we're in a 5 bed with 3 downstairs rooms + kitchen.
there is a ring for the entire house and 1 for the kitchen.

I can't imagine it would be an easy task to seperate the ring to upstairs/downstairs.

previous owner had a garage conversion done and didn't create a separate ring for that room either, just added it to the existing
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom