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1.5mm wire and 16A socket


JohnRoss
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Apologies if this has come up before but I have 3 heater points in the house and sometime ago I removed the wall mounted heater panels and noted that the wires were 1.5mm. Each point is wired back to the fuse board separately and each one has an individual 10A fused breaker switch. Can I mount a single 16A 3 pin socket at each heater point or is this against the regs? I don't see them being used for heavy loads at all and usually much less than 2kW...........................JR
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Yes my understanding was 2.5mm for power and 1.5mm for lighting however I remember reading somewhere that you could put one socket on a lighting circuit. Now these were not lighting circuits but individually wired small panel heaters.........................JR

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Don't know about the regs regarding fitting sockets on their own breaker but I do know for sure you can use 1.5 for sockets.  An electrician friend and I were busy telling a woman in a pub that she should get her electrician to remove the 1.5mm and install 2.5 for a main, I am no electrician but even I know you should use 2.5mm for sockets.  Or so I thought.  My friend checked his French regs and apparently it can be used in some cases, not sure on the regs but we both had egg on our faces.  This was only a couple of months ago.

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You can put one socket on a lighting circuit BUT the idea was for things like bedside lights where you may want a socket under or next to the light switch for something like and alarm clock etc.

 

There is loads of technical stuff on what size cable takes what sort of current which changes on how it's installed and it is all rather boring really to anyone other than a qualified electrician so to cut to the chase basically 10 amps is the max in a normal domestic installation which equates to around 2,200 watts (or 2.2kw). You mentioned small panel heaters, I would check their combined wattage. My guess is that a bigger size breaker may have been fitted because the right size one kept tripping if all the heaters came on together.

 

Personally if your OK with electrics I would replace the breakers with 10 amp ones. If your not or your are even the most slightly bit concerned then get a qualified electrician in to have a look.

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My "Comme un Pro - l'installation electrique" bible says that 1.5mm can be used for sockets, but instead of having a maximum of 8 x 16A sockets on a circuit (2.5mm) you can only have 5 with 1.5mm

I would only use 2.5mm for sockets though, and never 8 sockets.

My book is 4 years old so maybe there have been some updates?

 

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Some confusion here methinks though I am grateful for your info folks. Three heater points each on its own circuit wired in 1.5mm back to the fuse board. Each circuit has its own fused breaker, 3 of them one for each circuit, and each one rated at 10A. Only one socket will be connected at each heater point........JR

PS From what you good folk have said sounds as though this may be ok?

 

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John, heater circuits are normally run via individual "radial" circuits protected by a suitably rated disjoncteur (miniture circuit breaker).... Often you'll find 4 cables in the flex outlet box (the 4th being a control cable).

If you're happy that the cable goes directly back to the fuseboard and is the only thing being protected by this breaker, then you could change the "flex outlet" to a socket. Make sure you mark the circuit as a socket. The 10 amp disjoncteur although not quite to "regs" will be fine.

Warning - Be careful that the earth is actually an earth as I've seen then used as the control wire before.

FYI. You can have upto 5 sockets on a 1.5mm radial circuit. 

Mark

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Many thanks and yes there is a fourth purple wire which I assume was intended as a control wire although it is not connected at either end of the circuit. I did check for continuity of the earth wire to the system earth and it is so connected. I will remove the flex outlets and replace with 16 A sockets as you suggest. I will not be connecting more than one socket on each different circuit and they will be useful for vacuum cleaner use if nothing else..............JR
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