Anyone know if there is a convention/good practice when wiring
lighting circuits for halls/stairs/landings in terms of which circuit
they should be placed on.

Ie, should they all be on the 'upstairs lights' circuit, the
'downstairs lights' cct or split between the two depending on
location. Of course, the latter would mean that going to at least one
light switch would be power from both up and down lighting ccts. Is
that a problem?

Cheers
Rob

On 28 Dec 2004 14:57:16 GMT, (Huge) wrote:

writes:
Anyone know if there is a convention/good practice when wiring
lighting circuits for halls/stairs/landings in terms of which circuit
they should be placed on.

Ie, should they all be on the 'upstairs lights' circuit, the
'downstairs lights' cct or split between the two depending on
location. Of course, the latter would mean that going to at least one
light switch would be power from both up and down lighting ccts. Is
that a problem?

If it is, then I have it. The double switch at the bottom of the stairs
which switches the upstairs and downstairs hall lights is fed from
two different circuits.

(Mind you, the wiring in my house is a mess. It looks like it was done
in about three stages, so various things are not on the C/B you would
expect. Which is why I went round and marked them all, and why I know
about the aforementioned switch.)

Some of the things you get to see are truly shocking.

I was looking at one ( a recently built place) the other day and found
that a ring circuit was not a ring, but supplied from 2 MCBs. What
they had done was take one of the ring ends to the correct 32A MCB and
the other to the MCB for the immersion. The immersion was then
inserted into the ring MCB, being mistaken for one of the ring ends.

Flip!

I was looking at one ( a recently built place) the other day and found
that a ring circuit was not a ring, but supplied from 2 MCBs. What they
had done was take one of the ring ends to the correct 32A MCB and the
other to the MCB for the immersion. The immersion was then inserted into
the ring MCB, being mistaken for one of the ring ends.

Flip!

So no one did a continuity check and marked the cable ends !

Dave

--

Some people use windows, others have a life.

In article ,
wrote:
Anyone know if there is a convention/good practice when wiring
lighting circuits for halls/stairs/landings in terms of which circuit
they should be placed on.

Ie, should they all be on the 'upstairs lights' circuit, the
'downstairs lights' cct or split between the two depending on
location. Of course, the latter would mean that going to at least one
light switch would be power from both up and down lighting ccts. Is
that a problem?

I keep the lights relative to the floors. This means, of course, some two
way switches are by nature 'out of their zone'. To me this is safer - it's
more likely someone would fiddle with a fitting and switch off that
floor's MCB first without realising it didn't cover that hall light than
play around with two way switches.

--
*Artificial Intelligence is no match for Natural Stupidity *

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

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 15:03:49 +0000, aceSPAMwithORG
strung together this:

Anyone know if there is a convention/good practice when wiring
lighting circuits for halls/stairs/landings in terms of which circuit
they should be placed on.

Usually the landing light is on the upstairs circuit, and the hall
light is on the downstairs, funnily enough.

Of course, the latter would mean that going to at least one
light switch would be power from both up and down lighting ccts. Is
that a problem?

Technically, yes. You should keep different circuits out of switches
if possible, although 90% of the homes in the UK will be wired with
upstairs and downstairs circuits connected at the downstairs switch.
--

SJW
Please reply to group or use 'usenet' in email subject

"Lurch" wrote
| Of course, the latter would mean that going to at least one
| light switch would be power from both up and down lighting ccts.
| Is that a problem?
| Technically, yes. You should keep different circuits out of switches
| if possible, although 90% of the homes in the UK will be wired with
| upstairs and downstairs circuits connected at the downstairs switch.

To be precise, the two circuits should be kept entirely separate
*electrically*.

I see no reason why two switches on separate circuits should not share the
same faceplate (in a single-phase installation). It would be advisable to
place a warning label inside the switch box though.

Owain

"Owain" wrote in message
...
"Lurch" wrote
| Of course, the latter would mean that going to at least one
| light switch would be power from both up and down lighting ccts.
reason why two switches on separate circuits should not share the
same faceplate (in a single-phase installation). It would be advisable to
place a warning label inside the switch box though.

Owain



The light in my 'fuse box' cupboard on the ground floor is wired from the
upstairs lighting circuit. I've always assumed that this is so that when
the downstairs lights fuse I can see to replace it, and if the upstairs
lights have fused there is enough light in the cupboard from the downstairs
hall light to replace it. :-)

Peter

In article ,
Stephen Dawson wrote:
The light in my 'fuse box' cupboard on the ground floor is wired from
the upstairs lighting circuit. I've always assumed that this is so
that when the downstairs lights fuse I can see to replace it, and if
the upstairs lights have fused there is enough light in the cupboard
from the downstairs hall light to replace it. :-)

That is one of my tricks.

Yup - although mine is part of the cellar lights, so is on its own circuit
anyway. I've already got more than 6 amps worth of ground floor lighting,
so had to shed the easy stuff anyway.

I suppose if the hall and stairs lights business *really* worried you it
would be ok - and possibly a good idea - to have them all on their own
circuit too. Cable is, after all, cheap.

--
*Remember: First you pillage, then you burn.

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

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 15:52:40 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:
Anyone know if there is a convention/good practice when wiring
lighting circuits for halls/stairs/landings in terms of which circuit
they should be placed on.

Ie, should they all be on the 'upstairs lights' circuit, the
'downstairs lights' cct or split between the two depending on
location. Of course, the latter would mean that going to at least one
light switch would be power from both up and down lighting ccts. Is
that a problem?

I keep the lights relative to the floors. This means, of course, some two
way switches are by nature 'out of their zone'. To me this is safer - it's
more likely someone would fiddle with a fitting and switch off that
floor's MCB first without realising it didn't cover that hall light than
play around with two way switches.

Good point.

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 18:15:23 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Stephen Dawson wrote:
The light in my 'fuse box' cupboard on the ground floor is wired from
the upstairs lighting circuit. I've always assumed that this is so
that when the downstairs lights fuse I can see to replace it, and if
the upstairs lights have fused there is enough light in the cupboard
from the downstairs hall light to replace it. :-)

That is one of my tricks.

Yup - although mine is part of the cellar lights, so is on its own circuit
anyway. I've already got more than 6 amps worth of ground floor lighting,
so had to shed the easy stuff anyway.

I suppose if the hall and stairs lights business *really* worried you it
would be ok - and possibly a good idea - to have them all on their own
circuit too. Cable is, after all, cheap.

Thanks Dave.

It's not that it really worries me but that last suggestion is not a
bad one at all. I could put the cupboard light and a couple of others
on it as well.

Cheers and thanks for the advice.
Rob

Anyone know if there is a convention/good practice when wiring
lighting circuits for halls/stairs/landings in terms of which circuit
they should be placed on.

Personally, I'd prefer to assign rooms to lighting circuits randomly, rather
than have an upstairs/downstairs split. With careful choice, with one
circuit down, the adjacent room/hallway will have light. Far more people die
from falls than die from electrocution, so it follows that the safety risk
of being left entirely in the dark is considered more important. Labelling
to the effect should be clear at the consumer unit. Besides, you shouldn't
really be working on a non isolated circuit. A popped MCB does not count as
isolation.

Christian.

Christian McArdle wrote:
Anyone know if there is a convention/good practice when wiring
lighting circuits for halls/stairs/landings in terms of which circuit
they should be placed on.

Personally, I'd prefer to assign rooms to lighting circuits randomly,
rather than have an upstairs/downstairs split. With careful choice,
with one circuit down, the adjacent room/hallway will have light. Far
more people die from falls than die from electrocution, so it follows
that the safety risk of being left entirely in the dark is considered
more important.

My sister's parents in law are getting on a bit and bought themselves a pair
of electrically reclining armchairs for the lounge. 2 nights before
christmas they were flat out on their backs (oo-err) watching the telly when
the leccy went off. Now losing the telly was annoying, losing the lighting a
bit more annoying but being stuck laid out with no lights and the phone out
of reach was very annoying (although the rest of us found it strangely
amusing). It took Reg 10 minutes to wiggle his way far enough down to tip
the chair over to get up.

--
James...
www.jameshart.co.uk