electricity

[les]

I need advice! I've got appliances totaling 5650W that I want to use temporarily in the garage, I've got a double socket fed straight from the consumer unit via a 2.5 twin and earth cable, I'm thinking I'll be overloading?

[Trickydicky]

Total watts divided by voltage = total amps drawn, in your case it equals 23.54 amps (call it 24) so if you have a 30 amp fuse covering the circuit it should not blow or trip.
BUT
Are you useing all the appliances at once from the same socket? if you are then I would guess the cable feeding the socket may be getting a tad warm.
I am not an electrician and personally I would not be happy drawing that amount of current continuaslly from one cable.

Can you not reduce the load?

[les]

Thanks for that, I think the cable is rated at 22amps, but think I am getting near the limit, I may alter things so as to run half the wattage at one time.

[bmcecosse]

As above - just spread the load. So if part of it is say a heater - just switch that off when using anything else.

[Alec]

Hello Les,

if you are sure that the socket is fed from a single 2.5 twin and earth, then you are pushing it. Short term would be O.K., but sustained use would not be a good idea.
What sort of load is it as if it is not purely resistive, e.g. a non fan heater then the current will be higher than the simple volts times amps equals watts. For A.C. you need to apply power factor to that equation, nominally 0.8 as an average.

Alec

[bmcecosse]

Most sockets in a 'modern' house are fed from a ring main - so any load is spread between two cables, one each side of the socket. However - domestic sockets are only rated for 13 amps continuously - and the fuse in the plug is certainly only 13 amps.

[Alec]

Hello BMCE,

that's generally true but you are allowed a spur which is fed by a single cable or it could even be a single circuit with one socket.

Alec

[les]

Thanks for your replies, as a point of interest today is/was the day I decided to spray the van sides and in preparation I wanted to run 2 fan heaters one oil filled rad and a dehumidifier to reduce the risk of paint 'bloom'. The total load would be 5560W running from a 2.5 twin/earth. The double socket is 12 inches away from the consumer unit and has it's own trip.
In the end I removed the oil filled rad (2000W) from the equation and just ran the rest for an hour or so. To think my second choice of career was to be electrical!
ps; van sides come out with an ok gloss.

[bmcecosse]

Well done ! It' s pouring down here and blowing a gale - no one up here will be doing any spraying today!

Yes Alec -spurs are of course allowed - and sounds like the case here. Alls well that ends well!

[katy]

[frame][/frame]

[les]

Yes Roy, Rain here soon, so looks like I got the right day! Once the paint has hardened I can reunite the front of the van with the back! Could so easily have had to wait until spring, now should hopefully have the project done by then.

[bmcecosse]

Well done - good luck with it.

[lambrettalad]

Love those Canadian fuses,but you forgot the "for major domestic emergencies only THE railway sleeper fuse

[katy]

Got a picture?

Ken