Stairs lighting circuits

Anyone know if there is a convention/good practice when wiring lighting circuits for halls/stairs/landings in terms of which circuit they should be placed on.

Ie, should they all be on the 'upstairs lights' circuit, the 'downstairs lights' cct or split between the two depending on location. Of course, the latter would mean that going to at least one light switch would be power from both up and down lighting ccts. Is that a problem?

Cheers Rob

Some of the things you get to see are truly shocking.

I was looking at one ( a recently built place) the other day and found that a ring circuit was not a ring, but supplied from 2 MCBs. What they had done was take one of the ring ends to the correct 32A MCB and the other to the MCB for the immersion. The immersion was then inserted into the ring MCB, being mistaken for one of the ring ends.

Flip!

So no one did a continuity check and marked the cable ends !

Dave

I keep the lights relative to the floors. This means, of course, some two way switches are by nature 'out of their zone'. To me this is safer - it's more likely someone would fiddle with a fitting and switch off that floor's MCB first without realising it didn't cover that hall light than play around with two way switches.

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 15:03:49 +0000, snipped-for-privacy@kalico.replaceSPAMwithORG strung together this:

Usually the landing light is on the upstairs circuit, and the hall light is on the downstairs, funnily enough.

Technically, yes. You should keep different circuits out of switches if possible, although 90% of the homes in the UK will be wired with upstairs and downstairs circuits connected at the downstairs switch.

"Lurch" wrote | >Of course, the latter would mean that going to at least one | >light switch would be power from both up and down lighting ccts. | >Is that a problem? | Technically, yes. You should keep different circuits out of switches | if possible, although 90% of the homes in the UK will be wired with | upstairs and downstairs circuits connected at the downstairs switch.

To be precise, the two circuits should be kept entirely separate

I see no reason why two switches on separate circuits should not share the same faceplate (in a single-phase installation). It would be advisable to place a warning label inside the switch box though.

Owain

reason why two switches on separate circuits should not share the

The light in my 'fuse box' cupboard on the ground floor is wired from the upstairs lighting circuit. I've always assumed that this is so that when the downstairs lights fuse I can see to replace it, and if the upstairs lights have fused there is enough light in the cupboard from the downstairs hall light to replace it. :-)

Peter

That is one of my tricks.

Yup - although mine is part of the cellar lights, so is on its own circuit anyway. I've already got more than 6 amps worth of ground floor lighting, so had to shed the easy stuff anyway.

I suppose if the hall and stairs lights business *really* worried you it would be ok - and possibly a good idea - to have them all on their own circuit too. Cable is, after all, cheap.

Good point.

Thanks Dave.

It's not that it really worries me but that last suggestion is not a bad one at all. I could put the cupboard light and a couple of others on it as well.

Cheers and thanks for the advice. Rob

Personally, I'd prefer to assign rooms to lighting circuits randomly, rather than have an upstairs/downstairs split. With careful choice, with one circuit down, the adjacent room/hallway will have light. Far more people die from falls than die from electrocution, so it follows that the safety risk of being left entirely in the dark is considered more important. Labelling to the effect should be clear at the consumer unit. Besides, you shouldn't really be working on a non isolated circuit. A popped MCB does not count as isolation.

Christian.

My sister's parents in law are getting on a bit and bought themselves a pair of electrically reclining armchairs for the lounge. 2 nights before christmas they were flat out on their backs (oo-err) watching the telly when the leccy went off. Now losing the telly was annoying, losing the lighting a bit more annoying but being stuck laid out with no lights and the phone out of reach was very annoying (although the rest of us found it strangely amusing). It took Reg 10 minutes to wiggle his way far enough down to tip the chair over to get up.