Thanks to all those that replied, some additional information:

- House style is 3 bed, integrated garage at the front (half-in-half-out
style). Standard layout, i.e. no utility rooms or study etc downstairs or
general fancy bits.
- Accepted that hairdryer was exageration, and kettle is temporal load, but
point was if there is a situation that is going to occur on a regular basis,
such as washing machine and dryer both on, and the kettle load pushed it
over it would trip the breaker.
- It IS the builders expectation that all these things will be used in the
property. Primarily becuase the kitchen layout has 3 600mm openings, for
dishwasher, fridge and tumble dryer. So these loads at least are expected.
- There is no seperate ring/radial for the fridge, this I guess would have
made it more acceptable but as things stand all appliances are on 1 circuit
except the cooker and lights which have their own circuits.
- The socket circuit is all on the RCD, so stuck toast in the toaster is
likely to drop the lot.. (fridge as well).

I guess what it boils down to, is as some have observed, you would expect 2
rings in a modern house. I especially expect 2 rings given that its a modern
3 bed, at modern 3 bed prices, and its taken me several years to get to the
stage where I can buy one!

Apart from the load issue, I am also concerned about the earth. Modern
devices have a lot of earth leakage if they have switched mode power
supplies, although I believe this is now referred to as "high protective
conductor currents". Well, apart from several computers, I am sure that all
of video/dvd/hi-fi have switched mode PSU's in generating leakeage. Would
this be a problem? (I doubt it, but I am going to ask. I worked for a
company once that discovered one day that the top of the fuse box was
missing on their consumer unit, as it had melted due to the heat in the main
earth bar just underneath it!... lots switched mode PSU's = bad is the
message I left with!).

I guess from what I have seen so far, its pretty standard practice, and I
have to just live with the re-wire once I move in...

Cheers

Paul.

"Paul" paul at javajedi dot com wrote in message
...
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.

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), that all I have to do is boil the kettle (3KW) or have
the misses use a hairdryer (2-3KW) on washday and the ring will trip.
Thats
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!

Looking at the builders brochure, although their figure of 1000sqft would
mean 93m^2, they have taken the main foot print of the building.
Calculating
with the protruding garage area at the front, and the protruding kitchen
area at the rear (all served by the same ring) the foot print is over
100m^2.

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

I know that the 100m^2 figure is just a guide, but there are 34 sockets
fed
from this ring, and I am sure I will be using nearly every one; its just
not
up to the job. I am not sure how to prove that though quoting the
regulations, which is what I am going to need to do to get the builders to
take notice.

Thanks for any feedback

Paul

Email: paul at javajedi dot com