Kitchen on own circuit

[uksparks]

Am I being thick or are kitchens supposed to be on their own circuit, I'm talking of a brand spanking new house.

 

[Octopus]

One of my clients has a house with 1 x 16a radial upstairs and 1 x 20a radial downstairs. Retired about 18 years ago.

go figure

 

[ian.settle1]

Oi. I done my apprenticeship on new builds!!!!

Insert joke here................

Last train to San Fernando

 

[Knobhead]

UKsparks


you can put every socket on its own DP RCBO if you decide.

or the whole house on a radial.

its up to you!

Ye gods! A house wouldn’t need a consumer unit, it would be a full switchboard.

I am not a great lover of radial socket circuits, but why not.?

Depending on its size ... ! Large house, single radial, surely not!

If you feel so inclined, you could do an entire house with an individual radial for each outlet. Burying this little lot in the plaster took some doing. Hiding the board was a nightmare.

The wife wasn’t too happy with it, she divorced me.





BTW, I’ve never doled out so many thanks in a single thread, the thanks are for making me laugh, I needed cheering up ;-)

 

[ian.settle1]

Ye gods! A house wouldn’t need a consumer unit, it would be a full switchboard.

If you feel so inclined, you could do an entire house with an individual radial for each outlet. Burying this little lot in the plaster took some doing. Hiding the board was a nightmare.

The wife wasn’t too happy with it, she divorced me.





BTW, I’ve never doled out so many thanks in a single thread, the thanks are for making me laugh, I needed cheering up ;-)

All that kits a bit to modern for a house isn't Tony. LOL

 

[Engineer54]

What do you mean standards dropping. Most houses up to the 1980's only had one ring circuit for the whole house and they are still operating just fine. On an average new three bed I do one RFC for kitchen, one for the rest and/or sometimes seperate bedroom radial, sometimes not, depends really what the situation is. To be honest, additional RFC's is more about having areas split onto separate RCD's to minimise disruption under single circuit fault conditions than it is a loading issue. I still like RFC's but prefer KFC's!

I disagree with that statement, well at least in the area i was brought up. Even my parents house (circa 1950) had upstairs and downstairs ring circuits and dedicated washing boiler outlet and emersion heater switch wired in 7/036. And that was originally a council house, but in those days council houses were built properly and often to a much better standard than Private housing estates.

 

[Des 56]

I disagree with that statement, well at least in the area i was brought up. Even my parents house (circa 1950) had upstairs and downstairs ring circuits and dedicated washing boiler outlet and emersion heater switch wired in 7/036. And that was originally a council house, but in those days council houses were built properly and often to a much better standard than Private housing estates.

That may be true of council stock, in areas such as my own ,where terraced houses were the vast majority, the standard rewire, at least until the seventies, was a radial comprising a landing single socket,a lounge double and a kitchen double


After the seventies until the eighties the whole house single ring became the usual with downstairs spurs and cables mostly buckle clipped to the walls

The eighties onward was when multiple rings took over and trunking raised its ugly head

I suspect the provided availability of sockets mirrored the availability of appliances and that mirrored the wealth of an area

 

[Jamzie]

Am I being thick or are kitchens supposed to be on their own circuit, I'm talking of a brand spanking new house.

Its so that when you get called in to investiagte beacuse 'the house electrics have tripped' they're still able to make you a brew

 

[Octopus]

Its so that when you get called in to investiagte beacuse 'the house electrics have tripped' they're still able to make you a brew

Unless some numpty has installed an upfront RCD!

 

[telectrix]

Unless some numpty has installed an upfront RCD!

not if it's been there for 20+ years. then you'd have called him "a forward thinker"

 

[LankyWill]

New builds are wired by numpties, low skilled ones.

Bit harsh! If you work on new builds regularly you would realise that builder spec usually dictates circuits. If you have to questions whether a kitchen ring final should be on a separate circuit. It makes you the low skilled numpty!

 

[CharlieW]

I'm a newbie, re-wiring a flat tomorrow and the kitchen will be on it's own circuit, as will the cooker outlet.

 

[123]

I have one of those little energy monitoring devices I got as a freebie. The peak usage in the household in 2015 at anyone time, a massive 17.7A. (Gas Hob, combi boiler and combi for shower helps).

 

[7029 dave]

I'm a newbie, re-wiring a flat tomorrow and the kitchen will be on it's own circuit, as will the cooker outlet.

Well of course the cooker circuit will be on its own circuit.!!

 

[Geordie Spark]

Oi. I done my apprenticeship on new builds!!!!

Insert joke here................

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=runBptNy7_8

 

[Knobhead]

I have one of those little energy monitoring devices I got as a freebie. The peak usage in the household in 2015 at anyone time, a massive 17.7A. (Gas Hob, combi boiler and combi for shower helps).

As an experiment I played about with the CU in my flat so that the entire supply went through a 16A MCB.
It never tripped in the 4 months it was like that. To be honest I think I could have managed on a 6A MCB.

If you look at the UKPN distribution design guide you would be amazed how low the allowance per household is. They take diversity to a whole new level.

 

[atm84]

As an experiment I played about with the CU in my flat so that the entire supply went through a 16A MCB.
It never tripped in the 4 months it was like that. To be honest I think I could have managed on a 6A MCB.

If you look at the UKPN distribution design guide you would be amazed how low the allowance per household is. They take diversity to a whole new level.

Yeah I believe the DNOs allow 2kW per house.

 

[Knobhead]

Not much is it when you compare it to the IET’s diversity figures.

 

[Knobhead]

Unless some numpty has installed an upfront RCD!

Eeerrm, not that many years ago an up front RCCD was considered extravagant and unnecessary. But it was the only way one could be fitted.

By using the Bank of England inflation tables the cost of just one of the two RCCD’s I fitted in my house would be £500+ at today’s prices.

 

[Engineer54]

After the seventies until the eighties the whole house single ring became the usual with downstairs spurs and cables mostly buckle clipped to the walls

Well again, when i was was working with my uncle after school and weekends, he used to have a contract with the local and county councils to rewire the older housing stock between between tenants. All old wiring needed to be removed completely from the property and all circuit wiring needed to be concealed. Some of those old houses even needed to have a roof loft access cut into landing ceiling. There was none of this surface installation lark using PVC mini trunking and pipe you see today. Only the sockets and switches etc, were all surface mounted.

It was very much the same much later on too, when i made the mistake of helping a friend out that had broken his leg in a motorcycle accident, while i was on a 3 week vacation from an overseas contract. The only difference being that wall chase drops replaced by PVC pipe from ceilings and floors. The majority of the circuit wiring still being run between the floor joists etc.. They were the last 16 houses on the Tilbury Riverside Estate, that no-body else wanted to touch!! Now that's another story altogether, and one i've told parts of here in the past... lol!!

 

[turnitonagain]

Yes, and at least 3 radials, not sure if ring circuit is enough any more.