In message ,
parish parish_AT_ntlworld.com wrote:
ARWadsworth wrote:
What are the regulations covering this?
BS7671:2001 Requirements for Electrical Installations (IEE Wiring
Regulations Sixteenth Edition).
Height of sockets AND switches governed by Building Regulations part
M - to be installed between 450mm and 1200mm above floor level, though
When did this come into effect? In my 8 year old house the sockets are
350-400mm above the floor (to the *top* of the socket).
Building Regulations, approved document M, 1999. I haven't read it yet,
so I know no more. It is available to download from
http://www.safety.odpm.gov.uk/bregs/brads.htm along with the others but
whereas newer documents have been done properly, older ones (part M
included) are simply scans of the printed documents and are hence *huge*
PDF downloads. Part M comes to some 12 meg.
there are excemptions for rooms such as kitchens where sockets are
installed above worksurfaces. Part M concerns itself with "access", e.g.
for disabled persons, and also insists on things like "level" access to
the main entrance, and a wheelchair-accessible downstairs loo in
newly-built or renovated houses.
This applies to new buildings only. You can place the sockets at any height
you wish when doing a rewire as long as they can be used safely (i.e. not
I take it an extension would be classed as a new building? How strictly
would these dimensions be enforced?
The reason I ask is that one of the rooms in the extension we are having
built will be an office/study and I want the sockets placed just above
the skirting (bottom of the socket about an inch above the skirting)
because the modesty panels fitted to office desks obscure even my
existing sockets so, to plug/unplug anything, I have to grovel about on
the floor under the desk reaching up behind the panel, i.e. doing it
blind. I consider this a hazard as I can't get to the sockets to switch
off/unplug quickly if I need to in an emergency.
usually on skirting as it causes the cable from the plug to be under
stress).
What it says in the On Site Guide (to the 16th Edition Wiring
regulations) is:
"The Building Regulations require switches and socket-outlets in
dwellings to be installed so that all persons including those whose
reach is limited can easily use them. A way of satisfying the
requirement is to install switches and socket-outlets in habitable rooms
at a height of between 450mm and 1200mm from the finished floor level...
Unless the dwelling is for persons whose reach is limited the
requirements would not apply to kitchens and garages but specifically
only to rooms that visitors would normally use."
This probably lets you off the hook unless you or another family member
who is likely to use the study/office has "limited reach", or visitors
make use of the study.
More than that I cannot say, though if switching access (for emergency
use or otherwise) is a problem to you, have you considered wiring the
office with remote switching of the sockets somewhere more accessible?
You could use the switchbanks such as are commonly used for built-in
kitchen appliances, using the outputs of the switches to feed sockets.
Shouldn't be vastly more expensive. It doesn't solve the problem of
access should you wish to unplug something though.
Having said that, if the desk is to go against a wall, a: aren't you
running the risk of kicking a socket placed at skirting board height and
b: why not simply remove the modesty panel?
Hwyl!
M.
--
Martin Angove (it's Cornish for "Smith") - ARM/Digital SA110 RPC
See the Aber Valley --
http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/abervalley.html
.... I've got 256K of RAM, so why can't I run Windows 3.1?