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UK kitchen wiring


Gardengirl

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Can somebody advise on kitchen wiring in UK please? We are flying back today for a couple of weeks and one of the jobs is to continue with the bathroom and bits of the kitchen.

 

We want lighting under the new kitchen wall cupboards when we eventually get them. Is it legal to have individual switches on lights under the cupboards, joining up to the kitchen ring main via a fused spur? Cables will be put in now while the bathroom floor is up, although the kitchen refit won’t be done till next year.

 

Many thanks, GG

 

 

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Your electrician should be able to answer this.

Individual switched lights should not be a problem, normally they are daisy chained on a single feed - joining up to the kitchen ring might be.

If you are doing this yourselves then you would, in all probability, be breaking the law as these days, beyond minor items such as replacing bulbs or say a broken ceiling rose or a switch, you are not allowed to do DIY electrical installation work.

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Following on from Ernie,

The UK regs are tighter than a ducks bottom in water!

Any modifications to your wiring must be carried out via your building control office and an authorised Part P domestic installer. You will have to find an electrician who will need to put in an application to modify your wiring to the building control department at the town hall and of course the requisite fee.

Of course in accepting the work the electrician will have to make out a report on the condition of your wiring first and that could mean making changes to the existing wiring to comply with the current regs so it probably won't be cheap.

Enough to give you insomnia!

 

 

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Some details here...............JR  http://diydata.com/planning/planregperm/planning_rules.php#electrics

and here http://www.voltimum.co.uk/news/3111/s/Is-this-the-end-of-DIY-dad.html  Adding lighting points to an existing circuit in a "special location" like the kitchen, bathroom or garden - No.

PS Seems like a silly law as in the case of a mishap how would they know when the work was done unless you tell them or are they going to make everybody have a periodic wiring inspection whether they want it or not or on property purchase, maybe they already do? I agree we want fewer deaths due to faulty wiring but is this the best way to do it, I think not! People will be tempted to run all sorts of stuff on trailing extension leads more and more if this is the case and that can be dangerous!

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Part P  allows DIY Installations hopwever they must be inpected by Building Control......LA then send out a spotty BCO who knows naff all squared and passes it.......

Ok a bit harsh but you would think it reasonable to expect an electrician to take a look not some newly qualified surveyor.

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[quote user="JohnRoss"]

PS Seems like a silly law as in the case of a mishap how would they know when the work was done [/quote]

The new requirements corresponded with the change to european normalised cable colours, so unless you were shrewd enough to stock up on red and black cored cable (I wasnt[:(]) then it would be fairly apparent.

My friend extended his house a couple of years ago, did his own wiring and paid for the building control inspection, he is currently making two terraced houses out of his one extended house but tells me that he is no longer permitted to do what he did last time and must pay an electrician.

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[quote user="JohnRoss"]

Some details here...............JR  http://diydata.com/planning/planregperm/planning_rules.php#electrics

and here http://www.voltimum.co.uk/news/3111/s/Is-this-the-end-of-DIY-dad.html  Adding lighting points to an existing circuit in a "special location" like the kitchen, bathroom or garden - No.

PS Seems like a silly law as in the case of a mishap how would they know when the work was done unless you tell them or are they going to make everybody have a periodic wiring inspection whether they want it or not or on property purchase, maybe they already do? I agree we want fewer deaths due to faulty wiring but is this the best way to do it, I think not! People will be tempted to run all sorts of stuff on trailing extension leads more and more if this is the case and that can be dangerous!

[/quote]

Periodic inspections is exactly what they are after, anyone mention gravy train? Why do you think I am studying for the part P domestic installers certificate when I can find the time.

There are very few deaths through electrocution a few more via house fires but a lot more from other causes MRSA etc etc which barely get a mention.

Stocking up on old cable, who would do such a thing.

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Right, so it would seem it's OK to fit lights under the wall cupboards that are fed from the kitchen ring main via a fused spur unit, with the lights controlled by switches on the cupboards.  But if I understand you all, DIY would be illegal, even though it's the existing wire, pulled through to the bathroom and then fed back through a different hole.

Definitely sounds like a further qualification for the insomniacs club as Teapot mentions!

Thanks all, GG

 

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[quote user="Chancer"][quote user="JohnRoss"]

PS Seems like a silly law as in the case of a mishap how would they know when the work was done [/quote]

The new requirements corresponded with the change to european normalised cable colours, so unless you were shrewd enough to stock up on red and black cored cable (I wasnt[:(]) then it would be fairly apparent.

[/quote]

Are you sure ? I haven't lived in UK for some years but I seem to have a distant memory of current (pun) wiring colours being in use some years before the latest part P regulations came into being.

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What you could do of course is install a couple of extra non obvious junction boxes somewhere and do the first and final parts of the new circuit in red + black, been there for years guv. look at the colours [blink]

Stupid and over burdensome rules are bound to be circumnavigated.

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One of the problems found (although it may be an urban myth to scare monger) was that red and black cable of low quality manufactured abroad is entering the UK for illegal re-wires. Some of the alleged cable was found to be copper plated steel and had a much higher resistance so causing fires. Another downside is that people are now selling second hand cable over the internet and you have no way of knowing whether it has been overheated etc.
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We bought some purpose built under cupboard lights from a well known DIY store in the UK. You simple screw them up under the cupboards and plug them into an existing socket - the cable was just clipped around the corner of the unit and the plug is a standard  3 pin. We have a double unit on a big cupboard run and a single in the smaller. We simply unplug the socket when not needed - for can opener (I'm left handed and can openers are a bind).
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