Alan,

On Tue, 23 Jan 2007 09:36:45 -0000, Alan B. Pearce wrote:

>...
> I just cannot get used to the ring main system in the UK. having grown 
> up with star wiring in NZ, where the standard practice was to have adjacent 
> rooms on different lighting circuits, so if the fuse blew you at least had 
> some spill over light from an adjacent room to find your way to a torch. 
> Instead in the UK the whole house blacks out .... 

Not true!  Lighting is always on separate circuits from power (unless someone who doesn't know better got creative :-)  The "ring final", to give it its 
proper name, is only used on power circuits feeding sockets.  Lighting is usually done on a "loop-in" system, which daisy-chains from each light fitting 
to the next, but doesn't connect back at the end, and fixed appliances like immersion heaters, electric cookers and so on, are usually on dedicated 
radial circuits.  Are you saying that in NZ there's a separate supply cable leading back to the distribution board from the lights in each room, and a 
separate fuse for each?  That sounds terribly hard work (and expensive!).

Most houses here have separate circuits for upstairs and downstairs lights, but if the house is small enough (mine is) then there's just one lighting 
circuit, protected by a 6A MCB.

So obviously all the lights on a circuit go down at once, bur the only thing which would take down *everything* in the house would be if there's a 
house-wide RCD, or you blow the service fuse (the supplier's property, and you have to go seriously mad to blow that!).

Cheers,


Howard Winter
St.Albans, England


-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist