Can I leave 2 plug sockets permanently disconnected?
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2022 2:39 pm
A few days ago our CU started tripping a lot. I called out an electrician and he narrowed down the problem to a cable between 2 adjacent plug sockets (one in the landing, the other in a bedroom) and has disabled those sockets. This is probably either because we had some rodents under the floorboards a year ago, who might have chewed the cable, or because we have a small but persistent leak from the bathroom, which is near one of the sockets.
To fix it he says we need new cable between the 2 sockets, but that’ll be quite intrusive as they’re a long way apart and it’ll involve either lifting carpets and drilling into the chipboard beneath them, or running trunking around the room and through a solid wall (not a stud wall).
I asked if we could just leave those 2 sockets permanently disconnected, but he said this’ll mean we won’t have a true ring main and hence the capacity of the house will be significantly reduced. That’s a particular issue in our case because the downstairs and upstairs sockets are on the same circuit.
I was wondering how much of an issue this really is, given that (a) only 2 people live here, (b) we rarely use high-power appliances and certainly not lots at once, (c) we can run the fridge, freezer, kettle, microwave and toaster off the (separate) cooker circuit. Opinions would be really useful – thanks.
To fix it he says we need new cable between the 2 sockets, but that’ll be quite intrusive as they’re a long way apart and it’ll involve either lifting carpets and drilling into the chipboard beneath them, or running trunking around the room and through a solid wall (not a stud wall).
I asked if we could just leave those 2 sockets permanently disconnected, but he said this’ll mean we won’t have a true ring main and hence the capacity of the house will be significantly reduced. That’s a particular issue in our case because the downstairs and upstairs sockets are on the same circuit.
I was wondering how much of an issue this really is, given that (a) only 2 people live here, (b) we rarely use high-power appliances and certainly not lots at once, (c) we can run the fridge, freezer, kettle, microwave and toaster off the (separate) cooker circuit. Opinions would be really useful – thanks.