2 or 3 rings within a 3 bed semi?

[HappyHippyDad]

Evening all..

I have just rewired the sockets in a house. To begin with all sockets, including the boiler (gas) and kitchen where on one radial circuit on a 20A mcb.
I have put the house on one ring (32A mcb), the kitchen on a seperate ring and the boiler on its own circuit. The client is happy but would you guys have done the same or would you have split upstairs and down on seperate rings? With regards max demand I am completely happy but with nuisance tripping it may have been better to seperate up and down?

Cheers.

 

[Octopus]

In a small house, a ring for the kitchen then 2 radials ...... boiler on seperate circuit. CU full of RCBO's

 

[westward10]

Is it over 100m sq.

 

[Leesparkykent]

I normaly go old school and do 1 RFC for upstairs, another for downstairs and another for the kitchen.

 

[ruston]

I normaly go old school and do 1 RFC for upstairs, another for downstairs and another for the kitchen.

I am doing a love job like that at the minute.

 

[Andy78]

I would always provide a split of up/down/kitchen for general sockets no matter how small the house. I sometimes provide separate circuit/s for appliance sockets on larger jobs too.

To lose all the sockets in one tripping event is not really compliant with the spirit of the regs regarding division of installation.

Probably even slightly more work to make up and down the same circuit anyway.

Max demand should not matter on the number of circuits provided as the usage of the sockets will be the same regardless of number of circuits.

 

[Dave OCD]

I'm about to start 2nd fixing a smallish new build that I wired a couple of months ago. Did the kitchen and upstairs on separate rings,small utility for washer/tumbler & fridge freezer on a 4mm/ 32a radial and lounge sockets on a 2.5mm/16a radial, worked well with the layout of the house.

 

[Dave OCD]

I think there was a phase when people split rings into 'front' and 'back' with each covering upstairs and down - possibly to save cable ? It's a pain to label properly, no wonder they just put 'sockets'.

 

[Leesparkykent]

Or you could go proper council house bashing style and run a ring final around the 1st floor sockets and spur off to sockets directly below on the ground floor

 

[Dave OCD]

Seen it Lee but not done it.

 

[Risteard]

I think there was a phase when people split rings into 'front' and 'back' with each covering upstairs and down - possibly to save cable ? It's a pain to label properly, no wonder they just put 'sockets'.

My house was done that way. I'm an upstairs and downstairs man myself though (and obviously another for the kitchen!). I can understand the thinking behind it though.

 

[Andy78]

Or you could go proper council house bashing style and run a ring final around the 1st floor sockets and spur off to sockets directly below on the ground floor

My brother's house was wired like that. Not ever council though. Was a right old mess.

 

[Leesparkykent]

rough isn't....there's an estate near me and every house has been wired like it.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

I think there was a phase when people split rings into 'front' and 'back' with each covering upstairs and down - possibly to save cable ? It's a pain to label properly, no wonder they just put 'sockets'.

That was done more for lighting, so if an RCD tripped, there would still be some lights working on the floor.

 

[westward10]

Never particularly seen it on lighting but was common on ring finals.

 

[NDG Elecs]

For a typical three bed semi I would probably opt for two kitchen radials, two downstairs socket radials and one upstairs radial. Logic being is that I am sick of seeing endless issues on RFCs that go undetected for years. Also there is marginally more scope for increased demand overall, with pretty much the same amount of cable being used.
If a 'standard issue' dual RCD board was used I would be tempted to RCBO the boiler using a HI way. The amount of times a boiler causes nuisance tripping is up there with Asda appliances (in my personal experience!)
Lights I like to split as much as possible, on one rewire of a three bed bungalow I had around six lighting circuits. 60898s are much more likely to react to a lamp blowing afterall. 60898s could learn a thing or two from good old 3036s in that respect!!

 

[kingeri]

How would you guys rewire a 4 storey house then? Cellar is a games/cinema room, ground floor has living room and kitchen/diner, first floor bathroom and bedroom 1, 2nd floor bedrooms 2 & 3. Then storage loft on top of that.

 

[DPG]

Or you could go proper council house bashing style and run a ring final around the 1st floor sockets and spur off to sockets directly below on the ground floor

My house is wired pretty much like this (from new, built around 1974). Downstairs sockets on RFC, each upstairs socket spurred of one of the downstairs sockets. Done on the cheap when built.

Still like it now - too much hassle to run an upstairs RFC in!

 

[Grezza]

Is everyone doing their radials on 4mm or shorter 2.5mm circuits?

Tender to just do ring finals as I don’t like the idea of putting 2 x 4mm in them sockets

 

[David M]

Is everyone doing their radials on 4mm or shorter 2.5mm circuits?

Tender to just do ring finals as I don’t like the idea of putting 2 x 4mm in them sockets

Putting the 2 x 4mm in the socket is straight forward enough, folding them back is less fun though. Being a bit stiffer they tend to put more strain on the terminations so you have to be more careful bending them and checking for tightness.