Re-wire done, just a few questions / concerns

jawa1

Re-wire done, just a few questions / concerns

Just had the whole house rewired. (apart from Kitchen which was done 2 years ago)

We are not that impressed with the people who have done it but 95% of it looks ok and they are NICEIC registered.

I know very little about electrics just picked up a few things from what various electricians have said when they all came to quote so here goes….

We have a split load consumer unit.

Should the upstairs lights and the down stairs lights be connected to the same MCB in the consumer unit?

Should the down lights in the bathroom have fire hoods on the them? (loft above).
Good practice or the law?

Should the down lighters in the bathroom be separately earth bonded?


What size amp mcb should be on the Socket ring. (is connected to RCD side of consumer unit)

What size amp mcb should be on the lights?



In February are they changing the regs to so a bathroom does not need to be earth bonded just all connected to a separate RCD?

Hope someone can help

danclyon

Split load is normal now - you have some MCB's protected by and RCD - you have some not.

Lights up and down - not sure on the official line - but my answer is NO. That means total failure of lights if you have a leak to neutral which can be caused by something as simple as a bulb blowing - makes it a real sod to fix it at night - and you can never find a bloody torch. (btw you keep a torch with good batteries alongside the fusebox don't you?? :-)

Hoods - my view - YES - but it depends on the type of light and the heat dissipated by them. Certainly you need to block around them and keep the insulation well clear - and don't board over the top of them. Not sure on the bonding to be honest - but the lighting citcuit will be earthed - the only thing could be if they are low voltage - some of the cheap transformers don't carry earth.....

Sockets MCB - 40A typical. You have two rings right? One for the kitchen which isn't RCD protected (so the fridge/washing machine and the kettle etc are frequent causes of trips don't take out the whole house) - and one for the rest of the house that is? Any outside sockets should be on the RCD side...

Lights are typically 6A.

HTH,
Cheers,
Dan.