Electrical advice

[Anonymous]

Evening all..

Quick question if I may. I am about to finally complete installation of my home office built ins...I want to hard wire an eight way surge power strip into the existing office ring main (I've removed a 2 gang plug socket, so plan to wire into this with a junction box).

Question is, will this be a safe solution as the 8 way surge power strip wont be fused by a plug.

Is that an issue as each plug connecting into the eight way is fused anyway and the whole system is fused onto the main office ring trip in the consumer unit.

Just curious as this would save me some time...Any help much appreciated.

 

[Shadowfax]

Hi biglouie
I think what you are going to do is likely to be a mistake. Look on the strip as a large adapter. It is rated to carry no more than 13 amps; that is why it has a plug in the first place, so it can be fused at 13 amps.
You are probably going to have it rated at 15 or 16 amps (or more if the ring is rated at 30 or 32 amps) if you rely on the fuses or MCBs in the consumer unit. Depends on what you plug into it of course but the potential is there for overheating and a fire. Individual fuses in whatever plugs are connected to the eight outlets will not prevent an overload. That is the function of the fuse in the connection to the ring main ie in the original plug.
I would replace the double socket and the plug and connect the two together - as designed.
Cheers.

SF

 

[Anonymous]

Big loie

No, you cannot do this as it contavenes the electrical regulations. The most you can 'tap' off of a ring main is a single double-socket. To add 8 sockets, you need to replace the existing socket with a fused spur (13A max) and then wire 4 double sockets off of this.

OR you could leave the existing socket and feed the fused spur from that and then connect 3 double sockets from the spur to give total of 8

 

[Anonymous]

cheers for the reply SF, I think I'll run a cable from the old 2 gang and install a new two gang in a spot with some space behind the built in and run the eight gang from there. all seems a bit messy, but at least everything ill be working as designed...

 

[Woody Alan]

Hi

There are several ways to do this and some are right and wrong The way you've described if I understand correctly is not really ideal under the current regs, or indeed any regs, the reason is, you are not protecting the cable from the point of connexion to the outlet strip. The best thing you could do is to fit a switched fused outlet where you've removed the double socket or put the socket back and spur off a switched fuse outlet with a flexible cord outlet from the faceplate. This will contain a fuse and so you can protect the whole strip with a 13 amp fuse. The switched fused outlet will be a "spur" off the ring main. The fusing of circuits is really to protect the rating of the cable used, so if you were to overload your strip using your method but not enough to trip the 32Amp fuse/trip then potentially you are overloading the flex cable which is rated much lower and could therefore cause a fire (in theory/practice) I am sure someone who is fully qualified will be along to explain it better, but it's a start

Cheers Alan

 

[Anonymous]

thx Tony..

I'll get myself a fused connection unit and wire it in behind the main units. appreciate the advice.

Rob

 

[PowerTool]

The fusing of circuits is really to protect the rating of the cable used, so if you were to overload your strip using your method but not enough to trip the 32Amp fuse/trip then potentially you are overloading the flex cable which is rated much lower and could therefore cause a fire (in theory/practice) I am sure someone who is fully qualified will be along to explain it better, but it's a start

Cheers Alan

Alan has got it spot on - fuses are there to protect the circuit wiring.
8-gang extension leads are fine for what they are designed for - several low-power appliances running at the same time,but still totalling less than the plugs fuse.
Personally,I'd put the double socket back on and plug the 8-gang back in.

Andrew