In article ,
"Paul" paul at javajedi dot com writes:
I have a question for those expereienced electricians among us. I am buying
a new house,
and now that the second fix has been done and the CU installed I can see
that there is only a single ring serving the whole of the house sockets.
(additional circuits a lighting upstairs inc smoke alarms, lighting
downstairs, electric cooker).

I have serious reservations about this, as I was expecting two rings, one
upstairs, one downstairs.

Would be helpful if you gave some idea of the size of the house
in terms of number/type of rooms. I'm presuming a 100m^2 house
can't have 4 bedrooms and a utility room, but maybe I'm way off?

I have done some reading of the uk.d-i-y FAQ, purchased IEE onsite guide to
16th
edition wiring regs, had a read on the web and spoken to the NHBC. The
general consensus of all
these is that the regulation states:

- Ring should not cover more than 100m^2

And thats about it. Now I am pretty confident that with a tumble dryer or
washing maching typically pulling up to 2-3KW each (washing machine is cold
draw only - Bosch),

Washing machine is high power only whilst it heats the water, which
is a short time.

that all I have to do is boil the kettle (3KW) or have

Even a full kettle can only be on a short time.

the misses use a hairdryer (2-3KW) on washday and the ring will trip. Thats

3kW? Is her hair made of asbostos? I never saw a 3kw hairdrier...

not taking into account loads from things like Dishwashers, computers, TVs
and the like. This concerns me as (a) I have 2 computers I usually leave on
24/7 and they will not like it and (b) I have an alleregy to setting the
clocks on everything electronic and can barely cope with twice a year for
daylight savings!

My Question: Can anyone tell me a way I can express the single ring being
overloaded referencing the IEE regulations?

No, because you haven't really given enough information to show
that it is.

You have got a standard cheap professional installation -- that
electrican was probably the cheapest quote the builder could get.
If you want a better quality installation, then welcome to the
world of D-I-Y...

--
Andrew Gabriel