On 6 Apr 2006 13:53:01 -0700, "Lightman" wrote:

Dear all

The new Housing Act (shortly to take effect in a few days) meant that
I had to have two of my properties which are let as student houses
(HMO's) have their fixed wiring tested (so that I can now pay the
council a further £ 600 per property to register as a
landlord!!......something I have been doing since 1998 (with very
satisfied tenants who never leave).............it's all bureaucratic
nonsence really!!!)

I had NICEIC electricians inspect the wiring and issue PIR certificates

My perfectly safe and very new wiring (which I did myself 3 years ago)
failed on one small point (in both houses). It failed as you
......"need a protective device for each ring main circuit".

What I did is to put 2 small ring mains (two adjacent ground floor
rooms) into one 32amp MCB. This meant there was 4 tails in one 32 Amp
MCB. Each ring main is small and has 4 sockets and covers a very small
area. (It was done as rooms were renovated one after another and was
easier to wire like that. I combined some rooms on the ground floor as
the house has about 15 rooms (so I didn't want 15 ring mains with
15MCB's!!!!!!!!).

The NICEIC electricians informed me that if (they) put a joint box
behind the consumer unit (there is an access hatch) and make one larger
ring main (with 8 sockets) it will then comply!!

Isn't there space in the CU for an additional MCB, so that you can
actually have two separate rings? Even if you do combine a lighting
circuit with, say, a bell transformer (or something like that!)...

--
Frank Erskine