I need to install an additional 2 way 13A socket in an upstairs
bedroom, the room has recently been redecorated and carpeted so I
don't really want to break into the ring main. The bedroom backs onto
the airing cupboard which contains an immersion heater fed from a 30A
mcb in the consumer unit. We've never used the immersion heater and
don't plan to in the future. So my intention is to disconnect the
immersion heater and wire the cable to a 13A fused spur inside the
airing cupboard. Then from the fused spur, through the wall into the
bedroom into the back of RCD twin socket. Any problem with doing
this? I'm assuming it's OK as long as the immersion heater is
permanently disconnected. TIA

BodgeIt wrote:
I need to install an additional 2 way 13A socket in an upstairs
bedroom, the room has recently been redecorated and carpeted so I
don't really want to break into the ring main. The bedroom backs onto
the airing cupboard which contains an immersion heater fed from a 30A
mcb in the consumer unit. We've never used the immersion heater and
don't plan to in the future. So my intention is to disconnect the
immersion heater and wire the cable to a 13A fused spur inside the
airing cupboard. Then from the fused spur, through the wall into the
bedroom into the back of RCD twin socket. Any problem with doing
this? I'm assuming it's OK as long as the immersion heater is
permanently disconnected. TIA

So you'll just have an extra radial circuit feeding a single socket.
Just need to be sure it's clearly labelled at the CU, so anybody in the
future working on the circuits won't get a nasty surprise when they
think they've isolated all the sockets but have missed one...

(BTW does it need to be a fused spur? Wouldn't a simple JCB do here, if
the new socket is the only accessory on the circuit?)

David

In article ,
BodgeIt wrote:
I need to install an additional 2 way 13A socket in an upstairs
bedroom, the room has recently been redecorated and carpeted so I
don't really want to break into the ring main. The bedroom backs onto
the airing cupboard which contains an immersion heater fed from a 30A
mcb in the consumer unit. We've never used the immersion heater and
don't plan to in the future. So my intention is to disconnect the
immersion heater and wire the cable to a 13A fused spur inside the
airing cupboard. Then from the fused spur, through the wall into the
bedroom into the back of RCD twin socket. Any problem with doing
this? I'm assuming it's OK as long as the immersion heater is
permanently disconnected. TIA

First, are you sure it's a 30 amp MCB? Immersions are usually 3 kW, so 16
amp would be usual. You need to identify the cable feeding it as 30 amps
is too large for the normal 2.5mm TW&E.

However, you don't need to use an FCU when converting an immersion heater
circuit to a radial. Change the MCB to a 20 amp one. You can then have as
many sockets on that radial as you wish, as the MCB will prevent overload
of the cable.

--
*No radio - Already stolen.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:49:31 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
BodgeIt wrote:
I need to install an additional 2 way 13A socket in an upstairs
bedroom, the room has recently been redecorated and carpeted so I
don't really want to break into the ring main. The bedroom backs onto
the airing cupboard which contains an immersion heater fed from a 30A
mcb in the consumer unit. We've never used the immersion heater and
don't plan to in the future. So my intention is to disconnect the
immersion heater and wire the cable to a 13A fused spur inside the
airing cupboard. Then from the fused spur, through the wall into the
bedroom into the back of RCD twin socket. Any problem with doing
this? I'm assuming it's OK as long as the immersion heater is
permanently disconnected. TIA

First, are you sure it's a 30 amp MCB? Immersions are usually 3 kW, so 16
amp would be usual. You need to identify the cable feeding it as 30 amps
is too large for the normal 2.5mm TW&E.

However, you don't need to use an FCU when converting an immersion heater
circuit to a radial. Change the MCB to a 20 amp one. You can then have as
many sockets on that radial as you wish, as the MCB will prevent overload
of the cable.

You're correct, it is a 15A MCB, I confused it with the cooker MCB. I
thought fitting an FCU would be better so that if the central heating
ever fails and we need emergency hot water I can isolate the
additional socket and temporarily reconnect the immersion heater.

In article ,
BodgeIt wrote:
First, are you sure it's a 30 amp MCB? Immersions are usually 3 kW, so
16 amp would be usual. You need to identify the cable feeding it as 30
amps is too large for the normal 2.5mm TW&E.

However, you don't need to use an FCU when converting an immersion
heater circuit to a radial. Change the MCB to a 20 amp one. You can
then have as many sockets on that radial as you wish, as the MCB will
prevent overload of the cable.

You're correct, it is a 15A MCB, I confused it with the cooker MCB. I
thought fitting an FCU would be better so that if the central heating
ever fails and we need emergency hot water I can isolate the additional
socket and temporarily reconnect the immersion heater.

Not quite sure how an FCU would make that easier.

If you really want that, fit a socket in the airing cupboard so the
immersion can be plugged into that. Wire the new bedroom socket in 1mm
flex fed from a plug too. Then all you need to do is swop the plugs.

--
*Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a whack?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:18:34 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:


You're correct, it is a 15A MCB, I confused it with the cooker MCB. I
thought fitting an FCU would be better so that if the central heating
ever fails and we need emergency hot water I can isolate the additional
socket and temporarily reconnect the immersion heater.

Not quite sure how an FCU would make that easier.

If you really want that, fit a socket in the airing cupboard so the
immersion can be plugged into that. Wire the new bedroom socket in 1mm
flex fed from a plug too. Then all you need to do is swop the plugs.

I hadn't thought of doing it that way, I just prefer hard wiring,
feels like the 'right way' to do it.

On 18/08/2009 18:18, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In ,
wrote:
First, are you sure it's a 30 amp MCB? Immersions are usually 3 kW, so
16 amp would be usual. You need to identify the cable feeding it as 30
amps is too large for the normal 2.5mm TW&E.

However, you don't need to use an FCU when converting an immersion
heater circuit to a radial. Change the MCB to a 20 amp one. You can
then have as many sockets on that radial as you wish, as the MCB will
prevent overload of the cable.

You're correct, it is a 15A MCB, I confused it with the cooker MCB. I
thought fitting an FCU would be better so that if the central heating
ever fails and we need emergency hot water I can isolate the additional
socket and temporarily reconnect the immersion heater.

Not quite sure how an FCU would make that easier.

If you really want that, fit a socket in the airing cupboard so the
immersion can be plugged into that. Wire the new bedroom socket in 1mm
flex fed from a plug too. Then all you need to do is swop the plugs.

I wouldn't have thought plugging an immersion heater in to a 13A socket
was a good idea? Certainly not as a 'medium' term solution...

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Peter Watson
saying something like:

If you really want that, fit a socket in the airing cupboard so the
immersion can be plugged into that. Wire the new bedroom socket in 1mm
flex fed from a plug too. Then all you need to do is swop the plugs.

I wouldn't have thought plugging an immersion heater in to a 13A socket
was a good idea? Certainly not as a 'medium' term solution...

It would, if good quality, cope with it within design limits, but
there's so many sub-good plugs and sockets around I would side-step this
issue and use a blue 16A industrial plug/socket in the airing cupboard.

In article ,
Peter Watson wrote:
If you really want that, fit a socket in the airing cupboard so the
immersion can be plugged into that. Wire the new bedroom socket in 1mm
flex fed from a plug too. Then all you need to do is swop the plugs.

I wouldn't have thought plugging an immersion heater in to a 13A socket
was a good idea? Certainly not as a 'medium' term solution...

Not into a ring, no. But we're talking a radial circuit here. And 13 amp
plugs are rated at 3 kW. However, you could always use a 15 or 16 amp type.

--
*Taxation WITH representation ain't much fun, either.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:30:43 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Peter Watson wrote:
If you really want that, fit a socket in the airing cupboard so the
immersion can be plugged into that. Wire the new bedroom socket in 1mm
flex fed from a plug too. Then all you need to do is swop the plugs.

I wouldn't have thought plugging an immersion heater in to a 13A socket
was a good idea? Certainly not as a 'medium' term solution...

Not into a ring, no. But we're talking a radial circuit here. And 13 amp
plugs are rated at 3 kW. However, you could always use a 15 or 16 amp type.


Thanks all for your advice