To be clear, as I understand it, my 16A circuit would be complete from tool to consumer unit
Yes.
Let me see if I can clarify the electrics setup.
In every house there is a distribution box into which the electric supply enters the house.
This Distribution box has fuses (or circuit breakers) in it.
One will be for the ring main of the house which supplies the sockets into which TV's etc are plugged. This will have a 30 amp fuse (circuit breaker) in it.
One will be for the immersion heater or cooker and will have a 40 amp fuse in it.
Another will have a 15amp fuse for lighting.
etc.ense.
If you have a supply to a garage/workshop this will (should be) be on a separate fuse of maybe 30 amps, but it will more likely be 40 amps.
This separate wiring will go to a new distribution (fuse box) in the garage workshop.
In the garage distribution box you will have a 30 amp fuse for the ring main (power tools etc) and a 15 amp fuse for the lights.
The ring main is capable of supporting a total load of 30 amps or 7200w, and in theory this could all be through one socket. But this is not recommended as the plastic socket could overheat and melt and that is why they are rated at 13 amps, and why plugs for electrical equipment have a 13 amp fuse in them. 13 amp fuses allow equipment with power of 3120w maximum to be used before the fuse blows.
So with a 1400w vacuum, the maximum power of any tooling that can be connected to it before the fuse blows is 1720w. However tools with a rating of 2000w may only run at 1300w under light load and work perfectly OK on the vac fuse on most occasions. But if the wood is thick or maybe wet, the tool may need to increase power to work, and the fuse may blow as the current drawn to increase the power increases.
So - the normal ring main sockets are only designed to supply 13 amps (3120w).
If you have a high power tool (such as a table saw or planer thicknesser) it is usually recommended that these be connected to a separate 16 amp supply.
This is a separate wiring loop not on the 13amp ring main, which has its own 40 amp fuse in the distribution box.
The connections used to connect the tool to the supply will not be the normal wall socket boxes (as these are only designed to support 13amps (3120w), they will be special boxes which are designed for 20 amps, and some will have a 20 amp fuse and a neon built in to the box. But these boxes do not have sockets and the equipment must be 'permanently' wired into the box.
In most cases the 16amp supplies you will see are dedicated to one outlet box only, and if there is more than one, then they each have their own fuse in the distribution box, but it is possible to create a multiple 16amp outlet ring main with more than one tool connected to that ring.
So if you permanently wired your vac into a separate 20amp socket on a 16amp ring with its own 40amp fuse in the distribution box, then you could use power tools of a higher rating than 1720w. This may or may not cause damage to the Vac, depending on how the integrated socket for power tools is wired.
I hope this all makes sense.
