Hi,
I am about to have a split type air conditioner installed which will require its own electric circuit. I have a 6 way fuse box at the moment which will soon be replaced by a 8 way. Co-incidentally I am going to have a split airconditioner installed which will need its own circuit (one of the 2 spare after the upgrade). The electrician installing the fuse box may not be able to actually route a cable from one of the free circuits to where the outside air con unit will be. This is for various reasons which I do not want to go into. I am sure he will be able to give advice, but I have not spoken to him regarding this yet.
As an alternative, one of the air con installers says he is an electrician as well. He sounds convincing, and on the air con front I have no reason to doubt what he says. So he said he could route the new circuit instead if the other electrician could not do it. I'm sure I can work something out from both of them, but I would like some advice if anyone can help.
My fuse box is in the garage is at the left side of the house, the air con will be on the right side. The air con installer proposes the following:
- Drill hole through garage wall to the outside
- Run the cable up to the loft outside wall, put the cable through the wall into the loft
- Run the cable throught the loft, drill thruogh the wall, run the cable down the outside wall to a 25 amp isolator.
The cable will be some kind of standard weatherproof outdoor cable according to him (he used the phrase 2.5 twin+earth). The air con electric specs are as follows (I don't know what this means really)
MFA 20AMPS LRA 7.3 AMPS
25 AMP isolator required20 AMP circuit required
Is there anything that sticks out as 'illegal' or wrong about the above? Are there any other alternative ways to route a cable without tearing down internal walls? Bear in mind I do no know anything about routing electric cables in walls. My house is of brick construction, most walls are solid.
I have some general questions:
- How do I know how much current my house can draw before it 'overloads'?
- If the fuse box has 8 circuits with 200amp (completely random example) maximum load, 6 circuits equal 160amp. Does that mean the other two can be a combination to equal 40amp. For example 20+20 or 10+30?
- Why do showers and cookers have their own circuits?
Thanks,
James