# Any electricians on here?



## smokeysmoo (27 Apr 2020)

The plug in the pic is from a mains socket at the bottom of our stairs.

It's simply been wired onto this plug, and whilst it works perfectly OK, in order for it to do so means you have to trail the wire out of the under stairs cupboard, and round to a plug socket on the opposite side of the switched plate, as shown in the second picture. This aesthetic does not sit well with Mrs Smoo 

So my question is this, is it simple enough for an electrician, (not me obviously), to basically remove the 3 pin plug and wire it into the switched plate shown in picture 1? I believe the switched plate is fed off the socket behind it, and in turn it only feeds a light in the under stairs cupboard.

Or would it have to be wired into it's own socket, although that too would have to be fed from somewhere, so presumably the switched plate anyway 

As you can tell a spark I am not, so any advice would be welcome so that I don't get me pants pulled down when I do get a spark in.

T.I.A.


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## Noodle Legs (27 Apr 2020)

smokeysmoo said:


> The plug in the pic is from a mains socket at the bottom of our stairs.
> 
> It's simply been wired onto this plug, and whilst it works perfectly OK, in order for it to do so means you have to trail the wire out of the under stairs cupboard, and round to a plug socket on the opposite side of the switched plate, as shown in the second picture. This aesthetic does not sit well with Mrs Smoo
> 
> ...


Im an electrician, but not quite grasping what exactly that switched fused spur (pic 1) actually does and what the plug and lead does. You mentioned a light- is it the switch that feeds this or the plug? Just so I’m clear.


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## Phaeton (27 Apr 2020)

Total guessing here, the lead plugs into the wall socket to give them lights in the under stairs cupboard, the purpose of the fused spur is not mentioned, but the OP thinks it's fed out of the back of the socket shown. It all looks a bit of a bodge, but another 3amp fused spare to an additional switch to the light seems a logical route, although I suspect fall foul of the latest regs, a while since I read them.


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## smokeysmoo (27 Apr 2020)

Noodle Legs said:


> Im an electrician, but not quite grasping what exactly that switched fused spur (pic 1) actually does and what the plug and lead does. You mentioned a light- is it the switch that feeds this or the plug? Just so I’m clear.



The switched fused spur just powers the light under the stairs, that works fine and is not an issue.

The plug and lead comes from a plug socket at the bottom of the stairs on a half landing type thingy.

Does that help at all?


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## Noodle Legs (27 Apr 2020)

Phaeton said:


> Total guessing here, the lead plugs into the wall socket to give them lights in the under stairs cupboard, the purpose of the fused spur is not mentioned, but the OP thinks it's fed out of the back of the socket shown. It all looks a bit of a bodge, but another 3amp fused spare to an additional switch to the light seems a logical route, although I suspect fall foul of the latest regs, a while since I read them.


Yes that’s what I’m wondering.

Assuming that the socket in pic 2 is on the ring final circuit and isn’t already a spur itself then there would be three cables in the back of it, 2 cables for the ring then a third spurring off to the switched FCU (pic 1) You could then mount a new single socket at the side of this switch, take one of the ring cables out of the existing socket, and extend to the new one. Then one short cable from the new socket to then switched FCU, et voila. The benefit of this is that the switched FCU, new and existing sockets would now be on the ring.
Needs to be assessed and carried out by an approved electrical contractor who can certify the work.


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## Noodle Legs (27 Apr 2020)

Alternately, the switched FCU in pic 1 could already be on the ring and not a spur. If that is the case then you could still mount a new socket next to it and spur off that. Difficult to fully assess without physically looking at it but I’d say it’s not a massive job and won’t cost the earth. Either way it must be done by an approved NICEIC, ECA or Part P approved contractor.


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## smokeysmoo (27 Apr 2020)

Thanks for the replies, and just to clarify, at the moment to get power to the plug socket on the half landing requires plugging the lead into the plug socket in picture 2, so the socket on the half landing is effectively just an extension lead, but that leaves a wire trailing around the door frame, which obviously looks $hite.

So the requirement is to remove the plug and hardwire the lead so that the socket on the half landing has a permanent feed and doesn't require being plugged in as it would now.



Noodle Legs said:


> It must be done by an approved NICEIC, ECA or Part P approved contractor.


Absolutely no doubt about that  
I learnt my lesson with electrics many years ago after being thrown across my bedroom as a kid. While trying to make a stacking hi-fi out of old stereo equipment I attempted to cut the power lead to an old turntable, but didn't think about unplugging the feckin' thing first


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## Phaeton (27 Apr 2020)

In answer to the OP, then no it really isn't as simple as removing the plug & feeding the resultant wire into the Fused spur, the socket which is on the part/false landing should be wired into the house electrics correctly & not using a trailing flex. At this time we don't know if that is a 2 or3 core flex & providing any safety at all for any user. It's not a huge job but as @Noodle Legs says needs doing properly by a competent person,


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## Noodle Legs (27 Apr 2020)

Ah ok, now I’m getting you. So you’re using that plug as a trailing lead. Wasn’t 100 percent on what it was doing. 
Is there not another socket closer by to your half landing that you could use to take a feed from?


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## smokeysmoo (27 Apr 2020)

Noodle Legs said:


> Ah ok, now I’m getting you. So you’re using that plug as a trailing lead.
> Is there not another socket closer by to you half landing?


Sadly not no


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## Noodle Legs (27 Apr 2020)

Ok so the additional single socket next to the switched fuse spur won’t be needed. This would be put on your half landing instead and then still split the ring circuit and do exactly as I described earlier, just with longer bits of cable. These May need to be either chased in or put in a bit of trunking if the cable route is discreet enough. Still not a huge job I wouldn’t have said. But it would need to be assessed by a competent electrician first to see if this was feasible. As I said before, it’s difficult to assess without physically looking at it and there may be a simpler way.


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## rogerzilla (27 Apr 2020)

UK electrics are horrible. We invented the ring main to save copper - we do cheapskate better than anyone - and hence have all sorts of potential problems where rings get broken, you have spurs off spurs and other nasties that can cause overheating. Also, if your kettle trips the MCB, you have to reset the video . The rest of the world bit the bullet and used radial circuits with separate fuses/breakers for everything.


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## Noodle Legs (27 Apr 2020)

rogerzilla said:


> UK electrics are horrible. We invented the ring main to save copper - we do cheapskate better than anyone - and hence have all sorts of potential problems where rings get broken, you have spurs off spurs and other nasties that can cause overheating. Also, if your kettle trips the MCB, you have to reset the video . The rest of the world bit the bullet and used radial circuits with separate fuses/breakers for everything.


And larger cables.


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## Phaeton (27 Apr 2020)

Then shroud it in mystic & try to make it complicated, lobby the Government to change the rules, then force each sparky to join an association so they can cream some of the money off each job, it's just a big money making con.


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## Noodle Legs (27 Apr 2020)

Phaeton said:


> it's just a big money making con.


Part P definitely is! You have kitchen fitters now who are Part P “approved” -some of whom you wouldn’t trust to change a light bulb. My mate refers to these as “boil in the bag” sparkys- just add volt stick!
Glad I got out when I did and fiddle with proper electrics now!


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