Will a ring main work if loop is not complete? Ask questions and find answers to many subjects relating to electrics and electrical work

[roncolinos]

I'm trying to identify the which wires do what under my kitchen floor and it appears that at some time a socket has been removed form the ring main and nothing put in it's place - not even a junction box! just insulation tape around the end of the seperate wires. I 'm sure it's the ring main only all other downstairs sockets work fine even though the ring main is essentially not a ring. Hence the following question:

Will a ring main work if loop is not complete?

[BLAKEY1963]

[quote="roncolinos"]I'm trying to identify the which wires do what under my kitchen floor and it appears that at some time a socket has been removed form the ring main and nothing put in it's place - not even a junction box! just insulation tape around the end of the seperate wires. I 'm sure it's the ring main only all other downstairs sockets work fine even though the ring main is essentially not a ring. Hence the following question:

Will a ring main work if loop is not complete?[/quote]

RONCOLINOS

YES U WOULD STILL HAVE POWER.
BUT I WOULD QUESTION THE INTEGRITY OF THE RING ?
TO TEST IT AND CHECK PROPERLY U WOULD NEED 2
GET IN A PART P ELECTRICIAN.

BLAKEY1963

[sparx]

Hi, just to expand on Blakeys answer,
don't be tempted to leave it as is. The 'ring' will be backed by a 30/32A fuse/MCB, if ring broken then is really 2 radials of 2.5mm2 whose rating is lower so if break is near one end of ring then most of the load will go onto 1 leg causing overloading
regards SPARX