UK receptacle requirements question

Status
Not open for further replies.
PetrosA

PetrosA

Senior Member
Location
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
A we all know, being an electrician makes you fair game for any electrical question from anybody ;)

My wife's friend lives in the UK in a council flat. She has a room 3.9x4m with two receptacles on one wall about 50 cm apart. They are on the wall with the door and to get power to the opposite side of the room means she would need to run an 8m extension cord around the baseboard, or take a shorter route but run around the door frame (she knows better than to run the cord under the rugs ;) ).

Would she be within her rights to request any additional receptacles get installed or are there no minimum requirements for this in the UK? Are there lower cost ways to do this with some kind of surface mounted raceway?
 
PetrosA said:
A we all know, being an electrician makes you fair game for any electrical question from anybody ;)

My wife's friend lives in the UK in a council flat. She has a room 3.9x4m with two receptacles on one wall about 50 cm apart. They are on the wall with the door and to get power to the opposite side of the room means she would need to run an 8m extension cord around the baseboard, or take a shorter route but run around the door frame (she knows better than to run the cord under the rugs ;) ).

Would she be within her rights to request any additional receptacles get installed or are there no minimum requirements for this in the UK? Are there lower cost ways to do this with some kind of surface mounted raceway?
Click to expand...
I don't know of any minimum requirements for receptacles. One of the ways to tidy up extension cords and computer cables is surface mounted trunking.
It's two piece - the bit you attach to the surface to put the cable in an a lid to enclose it.

Below is a picture of a space that was just bare plaster walls and exposed pipes. I lined it, put in the shelves and fitted the double gang receptacle. Turned out OK with a neat, clean appearance. Mrs B uses it as a larder but there was no light in there and not much natural light. To fit a light with permanent wiring would have needed a fair bit of stripping out of what I'd put in and lifting flooring to get back to the right circuit in the dis board and I felt a bit disinclined to go that route.

So, instead, I installed a plug-in lamp fed from the receptacle. It would have left a dangly trailing cable from there to light in the roof.
I put a bit of the trunking to the left of the pic to run the cable from there to the roof.

Trunking01.jpg
 
Besoeker said:
I don't know of any minimum requirements for receptacles. One of the ways to tidy up extension cords and computer cables is surface mounted trunking.
It's two piece - the bit you attach to the surface to put the cable in an a lid to enclose it.

Below is a picture of a space that was just bare plaster walls and exposed pipes. I lined it, put in the shelves and fitted the double gang receptacle. Turned out OK with a neat, clean appearance. Mrs B uses it as a larder but there was no light in there and not much natural light. To fit a light with permanent wiring would have needed a fair bit of stripping out of what I'd put in and lifting flooring to get back to the right circuit in the dis board and I felt a bit disinclined to go that route.

So, instead, I installed a plug-in lamp fed from the receptacle. It would have left a dangly trailing cable from there to light in the roof.
I put a bit of the trunking to the left of the pic to run the cable from there to the roof.

Trunking01.jpg
Click to expand...


What is a larder?
 
Besoeker said:
I don't know of any minimum requirements for receptacles. One of the ways to tidy up extension cords and computer cables is surface mounted trunking.
It's two piece - the bit you attach to the surface to put the cable in an a lid to enclose it.

Below is a picture of a space that was just bare plaster walls and exposed pipes. I lined it, put in the shelves and fitted the double gang receptacle. Turned out OK with a neat, clean appearance. Mrs B uses it as a larder but there was no light in there and not much natural light. To fit a light with permanent wiring would have needed a fair bit of stripping out of what I'd put in and lifting flooring to get back to the right circuit in the dis board and I felt a bit disinclined to go that route.

So, instead, I installed a plug-in lamp fed from the receptacle. It would have left a dangly trailing cable from there to light in the roof.
I put a bit of the trunking to the left of the pic to run the cable from there to the roof.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll pass that on.
 
No, there is AFAIK no minimum requirement for outlet numbers or spacing in the UK.
Most electricians would consider it good practice to install about the following
Kitchen, at least 10
Bedroom at least 3
Living room, at least 6
Hallway or landing, one unless lengthy, in which case one each end
Garage, one unless used as a workshop in which case several more.
Loft, roof space, one.
All double outlets.

That is however a rough guide to good practice, and not a requirement.

Until recently it was usual to divide outlets over 2 circuits, one for upstairs and one for downstairs, more modern practice is to provide 3 circuits, one for the kitchen, one the remainder of the downstairs, and one for upstairs.
Many older or smaller properties have only a single circuit for outlets, and this is in fact normally sufficient unless much use is made of portable heating cooking or heating appliances.
(remember that an outlet circuit is normally 32 amps at 230/240 volts here, or over 7 KW)

If the walls are hollow, it is a fairly simple matter to add extra outlets with cables concealed in the same way as the original work.
If the walls are solid, then unless considerable builders work is contemplated, extra wiring will have to be on the surface. Surface mounted plastic trunking is sold for this purpose, or for a really basic job, clip twin and earth cable (similar to Romex) to the surface.
Almost any domestic electrical work in the UK is meant to be notified to the local authority and inspected, if DIY, or be done by an approved contractor. This is not widely observed.
Almost any new work will require protection by an RCD, UK term for what would be known in the USA as a GFCI.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top