One for the Electricians- 5A sockets

Brian Reay · 2018-11-18T07:49:56+00:00

While browsing the range of sockets available on Ebay, I noticed you can still buy the 'old' 3 pin 5A style ones. They are made by reputable companies so, I assume, still legal to install etc.I've a vague idea these were at one time intended purely for things like table or standard lamps, but that could be wrong. Of course the plugs, at least at one time, lacked a fuse, and I assume they still do due to their size.Are the sockets supposed to be on the ring main or a different circuit, protected by a fuse/breaker rated below the normal 30A you find on a ring main? If not, Is there something I'm missing re the safety side?(I'm not planning to install any of these, nor do we have any, I am just curious.)

Nov 18, 2018 Last reply: 7 years ago 29 Replies

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Tricky Dicky 7 years ago

It's done over here too although up till recently I had only seen loop in done at the rosettes. Our 1975 bungalow has the loop in at the switches but done using single core cables, the neutral is simply a single core going from rosette to rosette. My daughters new build has the loop in done at the switches but with T+E so a neutral is present.

The only thing I find about the system used at my daughters is the back boxes seem packed with cabling particularly one where she has two switches on one plate and one of the switches is part of a two switching arrangement the back box is absolutely rammed.

Richard

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John Rumm 7 years ago

I guess you mean a neutral at the switch - we definitely have live and switched live normally!

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John Rumm 7 years ago

There are a number of common ways of doing lighting circuits[1]. Loop in is common with ceiling roses.

[1]

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spuorgelgoog 7 years ago

I've got a four-gang switch in the bedroom, 2 x two-way for the bedhead lights, 2 x ceiling lights, loop in and out, and two extra loops where the smoke alarm / 2nd lighting circuit wanders through.

The old cables were all stranded imperial and cut really short too, so very difficult to dress neatly into terminal strip as a replacement for the Scruits(tm) what had been holding the neutrals together since 1968.

Owain

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Brian Reay 7 years ago

As per my earlier post, I intended to type Live and Neutral but made an error- a silly omission.

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Brian Reay 7 years ago

As I mentioned, we've a couple of rooms like that but this is the only house I've seen it in of any we've owned. Even then, those have wall lights.

As you say, the back boxes are a bit 'busy'.

I'm not minded to go cutting into walls to replace the cables to switches so, if we want 'smart' lights in rooms with 'UK' style switch wiring, it will be using 'smart' bulbs. I've found the Ikea Tradri bulbs work fine with Alexa - including dimming- no need to buy any Ikea control box. They aren't, as far as my research shows, Hive compatible, but Alexa is, so that can control everything. They (Ikea) just need to produce them in B22 and a mini 4/5W golf-ball version for our wall lights.

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Steve Walker 7 years ago

No neutral in, but you should see the back of the 4-gang switches used for 2-way switching at either end of our living room!

SteveW

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Steve Walker 7 years ago

Quite commonly used for plug-in lighting, switched from a single wall switch (for table lamps, standard lamps, stand-alone uplighters ... even Christmas lights), on self-build TV programmes.

SteveW

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Steve Walker 7 years ago

Yes. Our conservatory has a three-gang switch. One gang is used for a pair of ceiling lights and the second for a pair of wall lights (we have a solid bit of ceiling and solid walls before the main conservatory roof), with the third switching four lighting sockets. One socket is used for a table lamp, but come December, the other three are used for the Christmas tree lights and other Christmas lighting.

SteveW

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John Rumm 7 years ago

With a bit of careful organisation, you can get quite a bit into a switch backbox. I got at least 5 cables into this:

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It has power in, feeds out to a couple of lighting sockets, another to a pendant light, a feed in from an adjacent thermostat, and output to a wall heater. All with a triple switch on the front (one currently spare).

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