I've been investigating my ring main circuits tonight with a view to separating out the kitchen sockets onto their own 32A MCB.
At the Consumer Unit, I have the following labelled
16A Immersion 32A cooker 32A ground sockets 32A upstairs sockets5A downstairs lighting
5A upstairs lightingUpon investigation with a socket tester I actually find that:
The 32A MCB labelled Ground sockets actually feeds the following rooms:
downstairs Kitchen (which is on the left of the house) Downstairs utility (which is on the left of the house) Downstairs family room (which is on the left of the house) Landing (middle of house) front upstairs left bedroom Rear Upstairs left bedroom
The 32A MCB labelled upstairs sockets actually feeds
Upstairs Front right bedr1oom Upstairs rear right bedroon Lounge (which is on the right of the house) Dining room (which is on the right of the house) Hallway (which is in the middle of the house.
So it appears I do not have a upstairs and a downstairs ring mains, I actually have a left and a right ring mains....
I then investigated the lighting.
These are definitely upstairs lighting and downstairs lighting.
So obviously I've had to dig deeper into how the kitchen sockets are wired relative to the left had side of the house.
The kitchens chain of sockets starts from the utility room and then ends in the end of the ring main at the CU, but the single landing socket is wired in as part of this notional kitchen's room main if that makes sense.
So I can split the ring in two, run two new cables at the split point back to the CU but I will have to wire out the landing socket out of the ring main and put it onto the right hand side ring main as that's where the nearest socket is.....
I'm glad I checked out my house wiring otherwise I could have been shocked literally.....
Was this usual practice in hous ebuilding in 1985 to have a left had side ring main and a right hand side ring main?
Stephen.