Load for a 5amp wall socket

[ss]

I have alongside some normal square pin 13 amp sockets some 5 amp round pin sockets, the 13 amp works as normal but the 5 amp is switched on from a light switch located elswhere.

The round sockets were installed maybe late 90s in an 80s house by the previous owners, I was advised by an electrician that this was an old format of being able to switch on table lamps from a light switch rather than the wall socket.

I have no idea which circuit they are on ie socket ring or lighting ring.

Now my question, I have recently purchased a 20 watt LED external floodlight that comes with a 13 amp square plug, now I need to increase the length of the cable and was looking to put a 5amp round plug on it at the same time so I can use from the unused round pin socket.

Will this be safe to do so? With regard to Amps/wattage etc

Secondly I may purchase another 10 watt floodlamp so would it be ok to run both from that 5 amp socket?

[charles]

5 amps is about 1200 watts, so a 20 watt load would presnt no problem. I'm slightly puzzled as to how you are going to feed your outside light from an indoor socket. Do you really want the light to be switched on from where the present switch is located?

[meow2222]

modern, not old

presumably lighting

20w @240v = 0.08A. 5A 240v = 1.2kW, so well within its ability :)

Someone else can moan about RCDs, but it shuld be fine.

NT

[charles]

old too. It was in my parents' 1910 house.

[Old Codger]

Should be. Assuming the wiring behind the socket is correct, and there is no reason from what you say to suspect otherwise, then the theoretical maximum load is 1250 watts (1.25KW), say 1KW (1000 watts) to allow for inefficiencies.

[ss]

Drill a hole through the wooden window frame and feed the cable through. The socket and the light switch that turns it on are ideal. In fact the floodlight is only likely to be on during winter if I have a need to enter the garden shed and hols it wont be used often. The floodlight does have a PIR.

[ss]

"presumably lighting"

Knowing this house probably the electric shower circuit :-)

"modern, not old"

Ah! full circle again seemingly this was how they done it when electricity was first introduced in to homes, so I was told.

[Dave Liquorice]

Quite, had a couple fitted in the snug during the major refurb.

lighting

I would assume so as well but one the OP has something powered from them it's POP to find out.

Only that if the lighting is RCD protected having something outside runs the risk of when it goes leaky plunging the place into darkness.

[Roger Mills]

Yes, but hang on a bit. Chances are that this socket is connected to a lighting circuit[1].

If so, that circuit will probably be protected by a 5amp fuse or 6amp breaker - which will limit the *total* current in the circuit. So, even though the round-pin socket itself may be rated at 5amps, how much it can *actually* safely deliver will depend on what else is on the circuit. Drawing 5amps from it may well trip the circuit if there are lots of other lights on it.

Having said that, I'd be very surprised if adding two 10watt loads would cause any problems.

[1] The OP really needs to determine which circuit it's on - either by tracing the wiring or by pulling all the fuses/breakers and then turning them back on one at a time, and seeing what works and what doesn't each time. [Every D-I-Y-er should document their electrical installation in this way in order to know where to look when something stops working - quite apart from knowing which fuse to pull when working on a particular part of the system.]

[Brian Gaff]

I assume these are the old type sockets with no fuse? Personally, I'd not chance it. After all where is the over current protection if things go belly up?

I used to have some 3 pin 5 amp plugs and sockets, which had a fuse in them, very little things, I don't think one can get them any more. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

As I say, I'm just a bit worried about outdoor lighting being fed from a non fused outlet. Brian

[meow2222]

5A round pin sockets are an ancient design, but they weren't normally run v ia a light switch in times past. However with few rules people could have d one almost anything. Nowadays its standard practice, albeit not very popula r, to put 5A skts on lighting circuits. Modern sockets must have shutters.

NT

[Andy Burns]

In the consumer unit. If they're on the lighting circuit it's likely to be a 5 or 6 amp radial circuit. You can still buy the BS546 plugs and sockets, I use them for exactly the same purpose, wall mounted sockets for table lamps or lighting under kitchen cupboards switched from the same wall switch as the ceiling lights.

MK make fused and unfused round pin plugs, to meet the regs the 15A can't be supplied with a 13A fuse, so are supplied with 5A.

[Andy Burns]

If outside lights were wired permanently into a lighting circuit, they'd not have an individual fuse.

[charles]

[Snip]

Certainly as a design they have been around for some time, but in India, for example, they are the standard plug. They used to be very common in the "wall light switch" mode, but got forgotton when 13A sockets appeared. they are now coming back into favour.

Incidentally, the First edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations was published in 1882.

[ARW]

Was it switched by a wall switch? Lighting sockets were common in old properties but they seldom had remote switching.

[Dave Liquorice]

The youth of today have only ever seen 13 A and ring mains. B-)

The house I was born and brought up in had one 15 A round pin and a (possibly two) 5 A round pin sockets per room and a central lighting pendant. On radials.

It's not common so I wouldn't be surprised if people swap the 5 A round pin to 13 A socket so it can be "more useful". Leaving the wall switch on and not caring about which circuit it is on...

Pokes screwdriver into recently install 5 A lighting sockets, encounters shutter on L and N. B-)

[charles]

yes, 3 sockets with one switch by the door.

[ARW]

That would have been a posh house then. The ones I have rewired usually were just live lighting sockets with no switches.

[charles]

yes - it was in Murrayfield, Edinburgh. A posh suburb.