Connecting up Sockets in either office or home

Hi Dennis Thanks a lot for the advice on the distribution board set up for the office. You see at the moment we don't have a power feed going to the sockets and was thinking that between the floor levels of Ground Level where the office is and the first floor there is a Main Ring Cables that connect to the transformers on the power source cabinets that contain the different sockets of 110v,230v & 400v for the different applications of output requirements (ie Welding Machines (16KW),Grinders etc).Now to power the sockets could we run a 16mm2 Cable from the inside of the Power Cabinet to the distribution box in the office (ie via 63A RCD and DP MCB and 32A MCB for the 2.5mm2 Cable to connect to the sockets now I know there are capacity requirements when connecting up sockets but can you connect say 6 13A Sockets from one 32A MCB).Lighting circuit we are looking at having one switch to operate 12 26W Strip Lights would that be feasible?.Jimmy

Thank Jimmy2Rivers for your recent reply. However it came into my profile, not the main forum, so only I saw it. Was this intentional or a mistake?


To reply to the forum, either click on the "reply" button to reply to the whole topic, or the "Quote" button to reply to one post in particular. If that post is long, preferably abridge it in your reply, to highlight the key point, or else the whole thing becomes tediously repetitive.


If you click on someone's name, you go into their profile. If you reply there, nobody else sees it on the main forum. I would ask that you only do this if you want to send someone a private message not intended for general observation. Normally it is best to share posts with others, who will see things from different angles and may come up with ideas that we do not think of.


Anyway, to answer your points:


It should be OK to run a 16 sq mm cable from the power cabinet to the distribution box. From there a 32 A MCB can serve the sockets using 2·5 sq mm cable. Wire these as a ring main. You can certainly have six sockets; in fact you can have an unlimited number if the area served does not exceed 100 sq metres.


I presume the lights are LED linear strip. I don't see a technical problem in running them all off one switch. I would think again if just one switch is the best way. Lights are often arranged in separately switched groups, so that one can switch on only the groups actually needed, in consideration of areas occupied and daylight from windows.

Hi Dennis Thanks a lot for the advice on the distribution board set up for the office. You see at the moment we don't have a power feed going to the sockets and was thinking that between the floor levels of Ground Level where the office is and the first floor there is a Main Ring Cables that connect to the transformers on the power source cabinets that contain the different sockets of 110v,230v & 400v for the different applications of output requirements (ie Welding Machines (16KW),Grinders etc).Now to power the sockets could we run a 16mm2 Cable from the inside of the Power Cabinet to the distribution box in the office (ie via 63A RCD and DP MCB and 32A MCB for the 2.5mm2 Cable to connect to the sockets now I know there are capacity requirements when connecting up sockets but can you connect say 6 13A Sockets from one 32A MCB).Lighting circuit we are looking at having one switch to operate 12 26W Strip Lights would that be feasible?.Jimmy

Thank Jimmy2Rivers for your recent reply. However it came into my profile, not the main forum, so only I saw it. Was this intentional or a mistake?


To reply to the forum, either click on the "reply" button to reply to the whole topic, or the "Quote" button to reply to one post in particular. If that post is long, preferably abridge it in your reply, to highlight the key point, or else the whole thing becomes tediously repetitive.


If you click on someone's name, you go into their profile. If you reply there, nobody else sees it on the main forum. I would ask that you only do this if you want to send someone a private message not intended for general observation. Normally it is best to share posts with others, who will see things from different angles and may come up with ideas that we do not think of.


Anyway, to answer your points:


It should be OK to run a 16 sq mm cable from the power cabinet to the distribution box. From there a 32 A MCB can serve the sockets using 2·5 sq mm cable. Wire these as a ring main. You can certainly have six sockets; in fact you can have an unlimited number if the area served does not exceed 100 sq metres.


I presume the lights are LED linear strip. I don't see a technical problem in running them all off one switch. I would think again if just one switch is the best way. Lights are often arranged in separately switched groups, so that one can switch on only the groups actually needed, in consideration of areas occupied and daylight from windows.