Socket on a lighting circuit

[Steve G]

Hi,
I have just dismantled a false chimney breast and removed the plasterboard and studwork. It used to have small circular plinth type lights in the alcove and around the bottom, about 8 lights in total. They came on when you turned the light switch on in the main room.
After removing all this I can now see how it was wired. There is a wire from about 3/4 of the way up the wall coming from left to right, it is not channeled or chased into the wall from where it would have entered the stud wall and it goes down to a socket (which they put ridiculously close to the bottom of the wall!). The cabling from the plinth lights went into the transformer unit and plugged into the socket which was left on. This was hidden inside the studwork fireplace.
I have isolated from the consumer unit and found that this is on the lighting circuit not socket circuit.

Obviously I need to do something with this.

1) Can I chase the cable what I can see into the wall and use the socket for LED lights as part of my next project to mount a TV on the wall?
2) If not, how can I 'terminate' it so its out of use.
I ideally don't want to touch the good part of the wall if I can help it - I don't know where the wire comes from either.

IMG_0949.jpg (55.05 KiB) Viewed 120 times

Thanks

[Someone-Else]

that this is on the lighting circuit not socket circuit

You answered your own question when you said.

They came on when you turned the light switch on in the main room.

Again, you answered your own question

The cabling from the plinth lights went into the transformer unit and plugged into the socket

1) Can I chase the cable what I can see into the wall and use the socket for LED lights as part of my next project to mount a TV on the wall?

Yes.


If you want to isolate them, I would look behind the main light for the room for the cable that goes to the socket.

[ericmark]

If the socket is marked so you know it is supplied from lighting circuits, then it should not be a problem.

OK in an ideal world we would never fit a 13 amp socket to a lighting circuit the regulation says

314.1 Every installation shall be divided into circuits, as necessary, to:
(i) avoid hazards and minimise inconvenience in the event of a fault
(ii) facilitate safe inspection, testing and maintenance (see also Section 537)
(iii) take account of danger that may arise from the failure of a single circuit such as a lighting circuit
(iv) reduce the possibility of unwanted tripping of RCDs due to excessive protective conductor currents produced by equipment in normal operation
(iv) reduce the possibility of unwanted tripping of RCDs due to excessive protective conductor (PE) currents not due to a fault (18th ed)
(v) mitigate the effects of electromagnetic interferences (EMI)
(vi) prevent the indirect energising of a circuit intended to be isolated.

However when buying lights, so often the power supply is built into a 13 amp plug, we don't really have much option but use a 13 amp socket. So we need to use some common sense.

I have used double socket back boxes and grid sockets so I can fit a 1 amp fuse, but to be frank, 1 amp is the smallest BS1362 fuse you can get, and likely a B6 MCB/RCBO will trip before the fuse will blow anyway, as they are faster acting than a fuse, so seems a little pointless.

I look at my own house, and the power used, and in general we rarely use over 20 amp for the whole house, and the lights now we use LED whole house likely less than 1 amp, so if your consumer unit is easy accessible, really not a big problem, in the days of rewire-able fuses, it was a real pain when one ruptured, but today a simple flick of the switch, and power back on. OK my house it means going outside and down a set of steps to turn it back on, but one would soon learn not to use that socket for high loads, so no real problem.