On 27/05/2015 20:00, dennis@home wrote:
On 27/05/2015 14:10, GB wrote:


I did wonder whether the cable is overspecified to allow for this.

No it isn't in a 2.5 mm2 circuit.


I was merely inferring from the small number of fires that the 2.5 mm2
cable is probably more than needed in most circumstances. For example,
cable is more likely to overheat if the house is hot, but users are less
likely to have a high power appliance like an electric fire switched on
when the weather is hot. That sort of thing.

In any case, who would design a system without a sizeable safety factor
built in?

There must be loads of ring mains with breaks or dodgy connections,
but the number of electrical fires is fairly small.

They are small numbers in all the modern wiring systems.
Radials don't catch fire often either.