In message ,
"IMM" wrote:

"Owain" wrote in message
...
[...]
Lighting circuits are low current and use generously over-specified cables
in most cases, compared to cooker and immersion circuits which may be
operating at close to maximum capacity for extended periods of time. If
anything, they're more likely to cause a fire hazard through poor
connections overheating that a lighting circuit.

With modern downlighters and other types of lighting, the current drawn can
be quite substantial.



You're coming at it from the wrong direction though. Owain was trying
(IIUC) to point out that you would often have (for example) an electric
cooker on the end of some 6mm2 cable protected at 32A, drawing close
to that current and rated under installation method 6 at just 32A. This
is what he means by having circuits "operating at close to maximum
capacity for extended periods of time."

Compare this with normal lighting circuits where 1mm2 cable is rated to
11.5A under the same circumstances but is usually protected at just 6A.
Occasionally you will see a 10A lighting circuit, but more often than
not this will be wired in 1.5mm2 cable rated to 14.5A.

There is, to use one particular phrase, much more "headroom" on the
lighting circuit.

Hwyl!

M.

--
Martin Angove: http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/
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