House wired funny

trafalgar_2
trafalgar_2 Posts: 22,309 Forumite
Combo Breaker First Post
in In my home (includes DIY) MoneySaving
My house is wired back / front not upstairs /downstairs.................is this legal,ok with electric regulations ???

Comments

  • VH
    VH Posts: 501 Forumite
    Has your house been extended by any chance?
    My brother's house is wired in a similar fashion. He has a huge extension on his house; the extension has it's own ring mains. It's sometimes easier to put new circuits in rather than messing with the existing ones.

    I'm not an expert on wiring regulations but as long as the wiring itself conforms to standards, then I can't really see a problem with this even if it's a bit funny.
  • trafalgar_2
    trafalgar_2 Posts: 22,309 Forumite
    Combo Breaker First Post
    Hi,
    No extension ,it was a new build when we moved in and have had no reason to check out the wiring till now ......................went to move some lights and realised it's wired funny :-/

    Thanks for your post :)
  • robnye
    robnye Posts: 5,411 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    My house is wired back / front not upstairs /downstairs.................is this legal,ok with electric regulations  ???

    can you expand a little?

    do you have 2 ring main circuits for power ? up/down?
    do you have two lighting circuits up/down?
    smile --- it makes people wonder what you are up to.... ;) :cool:
  • trafalgar_2
    trafalgar_2 Posts: 22,309 Forumite
    Combo Breaker First Post
    Hi Robnye,
    I'm not too good on electrics but I'll try.
    In our old house if you flicked one of the two fuse switches for the lights, all upstairs would go off or all down stairs.
    the same with the sockets ...two switches


    In this house ................the back of the house will go off with one light fuse and the front of the house will go off with the other and likewise with the sockets


    Does that help ???
  • robnye
    robnye Posts: 5,411 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    strange setup,

    but i dont think you have anything to worry about.

    to change it would take quite a bit of work

    as long as the circuits are behaving properly (ie the fuse isnt being blown/tripped) then it is generally ok

    perhaps an mse sparky will verify this
    smile --- it makes people wonder what you are up to.... ;) :cool:
  • VH
    VH Posts: 501 Forumite
    Just has a thought, your house hasn't fallen over onto it's side has it? ;D
  • trafalgar_2
    trafalgar_2 Posts: 22,309 Forumite
    Combo Breaker First Post
    Just has a thought, your house hasn't fallen over onto it's side has it?  ;D
    LOL ;D ;D ;D ;D not that I've notived :)
  • MisterT2
    MisterT2 Posts: 166 Forumite
    Not really a huge issue. it has some benefits and there are some schools of thought that say that you should split the lighting circuits that way so that there will be lights available if one circuit trips out (they were looking at the regs after the lights upstairs went out and the person fell downstairs and died).

    The ring could all have been on 1 circuit depening on the floor area. Personally I used to put a separate ring to the kitchen/utility room anyway regardless of other circuits due to the loading you would expect in this area.

    If you have concerns, then you can get someone to take a closer look at it. If you want to know if the person wiring knew (or cared about) what they were doing, then have a look at the consumer unit. Fuses with heaviest load go nearest the switch and reduce to the lighting circuits which would be the furthest away. If its not in sequence, its not critical. Just a way of telling how good they were. If you have a split load consumer unit (with a switch and elcb) then the same rule applies to each section.
  • trafalgar_2
    trafalgar_2 Posts: 22,309 Forumite
    Combo Breaker First Post
    Thank you Mister T2 I'll have a look at that :)
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