Paul paul at javajedi dot com wrote:
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.
Kettle, probably 10 amps, they're rarely 3kW
Washing machine, maybe 12 amps
Hair dryer -3 or 4 amps
Total - 26 amps on a 32 amps circuit, still quite a bit of
'headroom'.

- 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.

The fridge is pretty irrelevant in consumption terms.


- 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.

There are really only three circuits, that does seem pretty stingy.


- The socket circuit is all on the RCD, so stuck toast in the toaster is
likely to drop the lot.. (fridge as well).

Why should stuck toast trip the RCD?


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 think something has got exagerrated and or 'lost in the wash' here,
the heating effect of the sort of earth leakage you are talking about
would be negligable.

--
Chris Green )