Hi all,

I was just round some friends who are quickly 'doing up' an older
place to house some friends of theirs.

While I was being shown round she asked me if it would be
(technically) [1] possible to put a socket on the wall on a landing,
being fed from the back of the socket the other side of the wall in a
bedroom (her electrician is on hols for two weeks and she wanted to
know if to decorate that area or not).

I poped the top off the existing (double) socket and noted there were
3 sets of wires, potentially ring in / out and 'another'. On the other
side of the room was a single socket and 'probably' the other end of
this spur.

My (general) question is what are the rules re taking another spur off
this ring point (assuming you can get 4 x 2.5mm in the connectors
etc), especially as this and the existing are only single sockets (I'm
thinking this spur *could* have fed a double?).

In practice the existing socket will probably only be feeding a table
lamp and the new one on the landing would be for a suction cleaner
(not that makes any difference to the regs etc) ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

[1] The lady reminded me that I ran / wired some SWA to a waterproof
socket in the garden for her when I was 17 .. 32 years ago ... and
it's still working! g

In article ,
Owain writes:
T i m wrote:
I poped the top off the existing (double) socket and noted there were
3 sets of wires, potentially ring in / out and 'another'. On the other
side of the room was a single socket and 'probably' the other end of
this spur.
My (general) question is what are the rules re taking another spur off
this ring point (assuming you can get 4 x 2.5mm in the connectors
etc), especially as this and the existing are only single sockets (I'm
thinking this spur *could* have fed a double?).

Well ... technically it could give rise to a high point load but I
AFAICR there's nothing against it in the Regs.

The space in the terminals and the back box for the wires is going to be
the killer - bear in mind the requirement for "good workmanship".

Different makes vary. Be prepared to go out and buy a good
replacement socket with plenty of terminal capacity. The
other issue will be is there enough space in the back box
for another cable? Generally, you need a deeper box when
you have so many cables entering the box.

--
Andrew Gabriel

On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 19:45:37 +0100, Owain
wrote:

T i m wrote:
I poped the top off the existing (double) socket and noted there were
3 sets of wires, potentially ring in / out and 'another'. On the other
side of the room was a single socket and 'probably' the other end of
this spur.
My (general) question is what are the rules re taking another spur off
this ring point (assuming you can get 4 x 2.5mm in the connectors
etc), especially as this and the existing are only single sockets (I'm
thinking this spur *could* have fed a double?).

Well ... technically it could give rise to a high point load but I
AFAICR there's nothing against it in the Regs.

Ok thanks, I'll pass that on ..

The space in the terminals and the back box for the wires is going to be
the killer - bear in mind the requirement for "good workmanship".

Oh indeed. Whenever I have done this in the past I try to ensure the
cables enter the back of the box in the right order so they lay in
parallel inside the box etc (not twisting all over each other) and
with enough of the sheath stripped back to give flexibility whilst
keeping the sheath within the box etc. One thing I had then and am
still hanging onto now is pride in what I do. It's a rare day when I
look at other folks work (these days) and think 'that's neat' .. ;-(

T' simplest way would probably be to spur off the double socket to an
adjacent FCU, then run both single sockets downstream of the FCU.

Understood.

[1] The lady reminded me that I ran / wired some SWA to a waterproof
socket in the garden for her when I was 17 .. 32 years ago ... and
it's still working! g

Be about time for its periodic inspection and insulation test then.

Probably. But I can't touch any of it now days can I ..?

All the best ..

T i m

On 27 Aug 2005 21:42:58 GMT, (Andrew
Gabriel) wrote:

In article ,
Owain writes:
T i m wrote:
I poped the top off the existing (double) socket and noted there were
3 sets of wires, potentially ring in / out and 'another'. On the other
side of the room was a single socket and 'probably' the other end of
this spur.
My (general) question is what are the rules re taking another spur off
this ring point (assuming you can get 4 x 2.5mm in the connectors
etc), especially as this and the existing are only single sockets (I'm
thinking this spur *could* have fed a double?).

Well ... technically it could give rise to a high point load but I

AFAICR there's nothing against it in the Regs.

The space in the terminals and the back box for the wires is going to be
the killer - bear in mind the requirement for "good workmanship".

Different makes vary. Be prepared to go out and buy a good
replacement socket with plenty of terminal capacity.

Understood. I think the existing *may* cope (I didn't want to pull it
about too much) but the owner wouldn't be against a new double socket
if needed.

The
other issue will be is there enough space in the back box
for another cable? Generally, you need a deeper box when
you have so many cables entering the box.

The existing double is on the (large) skirting on a deep surface
plastic box. I think they would be able to get another T&E in there
but might have to open up the hole in the box / skirting first.

As the 'new' socket is only going to be on the other side of the wall
(and probably also plastic surface mount) could one use singles
between them (might be easier to thread through the remaining space
etc?).

All the best ..

T i m