Adding a socket

BoxerfanUK

Hi,

Ok so we have a large irregular shaped upstairs landing with only one double electric socket fitted. At the other end of the landing we have a console table and SWMBO would really like a small LED lamp on it, but there's no available socket.

The upstairs stud walls are metal framed, so it would be relatively easy to drop a cable down from the loft and add a socket where she needs it, but the only problem is the socket in the loft that I would SPUR from is already a SPUR which runs from the existing landing socket on the ring main.

The only thing the existing landing socket is used for is plugging in a vacuum cleaner. The spurred socket in the loft is only used for a TV aerial amp' which only draws a few watts. The proposed new landing socket would generally power just a low wattage LED lamp or possibly the vacuum cleaner instead of using the other landing socket.

Am I right in thinking that if I doubled up the cable from the existing landing socket to the existing loft spur that would make it part of the ring main and then I could SPUR from the loft socket to the new location? Or do I have that wrong?

Do I have any simpler options that would enable me to just SPUR off the loft SPUR?

Mr.Generous

Yes you are wrong. The ring is a circuit, it goes from the mains board and back to it. A spur can be put into the ring but not as you describe. Draw it out and see what I mean.

An acceptable alternative might be a round pin 5amp socket fed from the lighting circuit in the loft, and fit a round pin plug to your (less than 1/10a max*) LED lamp.

This is ok because the only things with small round pin plugs are lamps / items that consume !!!!!! all electric.


*Yes one tenth of an amp. IE 10w bright LED bulb = less than 1/20th of an amp.


Obviously this work needs to done by a competent qualified person.

onomatopoeia99

Mr.Generous wrote: »

Obviously this work needs to done by a competent qualified person.

Why do they need to be "qualified" ?

fordfocus-chav-car

Yes it would work, if you have room to join the cables in the back of the existing socket on the landing.
Then you could extend the ring main. So you would have two cables in the existing landing socket & two joined.

Ectophile

Just doubling up the cable from the first spur to the second doesn't make it part of the ring. You would have to double up the cable from the rest of the ring to the first spur as well, and then connect the wires to make a proper ring.



Normally a spur off a spur isn't allowed. But it can be made OK if you fuse it down. A 13A fused connection unit (FCU) wired in before the first spur socket would limit the total current to 13A, which makes it acceptable.


One thing to check - is the socket in the attic actually connected to the socket ring? Sometimes they are connected to the lighting circuit instead.

BoxerfanUK

Ectophile wrote: »

Just doubling up the cable from the first spur to the second doesn't make it part of the ring. You would have to double up the cable from the rest of the ring to the first spur as well, and then connect the wires to make a proper ring.

Normally a spur off a spur isn't allowed. But it can be made OK if you fuse it down. A 13A fused connection unit (FCU) wired in before the first spur socket would limit the total current to 13A, which makes it acceptable.

One thing to check - is the socket in the attic actually connected to the socket ring? Sometimes they are connected to the lighting circuit instead.

Yes the loft spur is connected to the socket ring... I did it myself. Thanks for all comments, I've sorted it now, managed to SPUR from another socket on the ring from the 4th bedroom instead so wasn't an issue in the end but thanks again for the advice, much appreciated.