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In article ,
(Mike Hall) writes:
Here's one for a little debate:
As part of our overall rewiring project I'm about to rewire the lounge
and intend to put in some, (5A round pin), lighting sockets switched
from a wall switch. It's been much trumpeted in this newsgroup about
the safety advantages of having the lighting circuits on the non-RCD
side of a split load CU, - and that is indeed how my lighting is
wired. However, what is the esteemed panels view on the fact that
the, (in my case), floor lamps will also then be fed from a non-RCD'd
outlet. Does anyone see this as a problem with them being (almost) a
portable item? and if so what are the other options.

I have a couple of room lights on such outlets, but they are never
moved around. I would suggest that's unlikely to happen for the
room lighting you switch at the doorway.

BTW, 2A sockets are fine. It's gone from the regs now because
they no longer specify such things, but 2A sockets were allowed
on circuits fused at up to 10A (as commonly found in commercial
premises for lighting circuits).

Another thought that crosses my mind is that 'plug in' lights are
normally only fused at 3A and potentially only have cable rated at 3A.
If I replace their standard fused square pin plug with a 5A round pin
plug then I am not protecting that 3A cable with anything other than a
6A MCB. - What is the norm in this case? - to 'gloss over' it, or can
you in fact get hold of fused round pin plugs?

Actually, all appliances sold in the EU have to be safe with
16A protection, as used in some other countries. The effect is
to limit the length of 0.5mm² flex to a couple of metres
(can't recall the exact value) so that in the event of a short
circuit, the cable resistance is low enough to allow a 16A
breaker to clear the fault quickly before the cable overheats.
If you have an older pre-EEC appliance with a long flex, then
this might be a problem.

--
Andrew Gabriel