Doctor Drivel wrote:

True an RCBO can be on a ring. Rings are still silly and cheap; one of

Today's ring circuits represent a very good bit of engineering design.

Engineering? Daisy-chaining sockets together? Are you kidding? I said

Mo, not at all. Do the sums and see how it out performs other circuit
topologies under wide ranging loads and the majority of fault
conditions. This with economy of materials.

Anyone can build cheap and anyone can build strong, but it takes
engineering finesse to do both at once.

to this guy we have two ways back to the meter in earthing. He said if
you are that paranoid run another earth back from the furthest socket on
a radial circuit.

Which is also standard practice in the UK for high integrity radial
circuits.

He said "use 4 core cable and use the 4th core for the
return earth, that will do it".

Does not get you the advantages of dual conductor paths for the phase an
neutral though does it? You would also need 6mm^2 cable in many circuits
to make and equivalent radial. Far less practical from an installers
point of view.

He was amazed we had an unsheathed eath
wire in the T&E cable. He said "that is cheap".

Which is good obviously.

No sure what his nationality has to do with it. The system you
describe would not be to standard in the UK wiring regulations, and
would rightly be due criticism. Appliances in kitchens with concealed
sockets etc should have independent switching above the worktop.

With a socket under the worktop with an inaccessible fuse in the plug,
that might blow. Duh!! The fused spurs looks hideous as well.

You don't need a fused spur on the wall, just a switch. These look
perfectly acceptable:

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Ind..._20/index.html

Use of whole house RCDs is also long since deprecated.

Long since? Like a few years then.

some 20 odd, yes.

hidden behind the appliance. He thought the system was mad and said

Fuses in plugs don't routinely blow unless the appliance develops a
fault. You probably won't be repairing that in situ under the worktop
either, so not really a problem is it.

it was clearly cheap at the CU but expensive (and ugly) in fused spurs.

Rich coming from a German, have you seen their plugs and sockets?

Fused spurs can ruin an nice kitchen worktop.

So don't use them - no need.

About time we went the same way as the rest of the world. On the

What and lower our standards and safety record to match theirs you mean?

Your logic seems as confused as ever.

Get to know the merits of a system the rest of the world use. Duh!

You could start with understanding ours before you go trying to compare
with others.



--
Cheers,

John.

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