Can I add more sockets without a rewire?

How are extra sockets added to an existing circuit?

In one of three ways, and the right one depends on how the circuit you already have is wired.

• Extending the ring. Most UK socket circuits are a ring, a loop of cable that leaves the board and comes back to it. A new socket can be put into the loop so it stays a proper ring.
• A spur. A single branch taken off the ring to one new point. Spurs are normal and safe when they are done within the limits BS 7671 guidance sets, and a problem when they have been added on top of each other for thirty years.
• A new circuit. A fresh radial or ring from the consumer unit to a room or an area. It is the most work of the three, and sometimes the right answer.

None of the three means lifting every floor in the house. The work is local to the room, plus whatever route the cable has to take to get there.

Why does the circuit get tested before anything is added?

Because adding to a circuit that is already faulty makes the fault bigger and hides it better.

The commonest one we find is a broken ring. One leg of the loop has come apart somewhere, every socket still works, and nobody knows until something heavy is plugged in and a cable carries more than it was ever meant to. It cannot be seen. It can only be measured.

The other checks are the earth at the sockets, the insulation of the cable, and whether the circuit has RCD protection. Under BS 7671 socket outlets need 30mA RCD protection, so if the board has none, that shapes the job before a single socket is added. Our repair or replace article covers what that means for the board.

Is there a simpler answer than new sockets?

Quite often, and a sales-led quote will not volunteer it.

If the sockets are in the right places and there are simply too few of them, changing single sockets to doubles, or to sockets with USB outlets, uses the same box position and the same circuit. It is the cheapest extra capacity in the house, and in a lot of living rooms and bedrooms it solves the problem outright.

It does not add capacity to the circuit, only places to plug in. For a room full of low power things, chargers, lamps, a television, that is all most people need.

When is a new circuit the better answer?

When the load is heavy, fixed or all day, or when the room will be used differently from now on.

• A home office with a desk of computers and monitors, or a gaming set up, on a circuit that also serves the rest of the floor.
• A kitchen, which is covered in our kitchen refit article.
• Electric heaters, a hot tub, or anything that runs at full power for hours.
• An electric car. A charge point always gets its own circuit, and our EV charger feasibility article explains why.
• Power to a garage or garden building, which is its own job and covered in our garden office power article.

One thing never works: taking sockets off a lighting circuit. Lighting circuits are built for a fraction of the current a socket can draw.

Is adding a socket notifiable, and does it need a certificate?

In England, adding a socket to an existing circuit is not notifiable, unless the room contains a bath or a shower. A new circuit is notifiable wherever it goes. Wales kept stricter rules.

Not notifiable does not mean anything goes. The work still has to meet BS 7671 and it should still be tested. We issue a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate for an addition to a circuit, and a full Electrical Installation Certificate for a new one, and as an NICEIC Approved Contractor we notify building control ourselves when it is required.

Are extension leads a safe stopgap?

For low power things, used sensibly, yes. As a permanent answer, no.

Electrical Safety First warns against overloading sockets and against plugging one extension lead into another. A four way lead does not give a socket four times the capacity, it shares the same limit between four plugs. If a room runs on a string of leads, or a lead is hidden behind furniture and warm to the touch, that is the room telling you it needs more sockets.

What changes the price of adding sockets?

We price it after seeing the room and testing the circuit, because both change the answer.

• How many new points, and whether singles to doubles covers some of them.
• The cable route, and whether the floor is suspended timber or solid concrete.
• Whether the walls are being decorated anyway or have to be made good afterwards.
• What the tests find on the existing circuit.
• Whether the consumer unit has RCD protection and a spare way if a new circuit is needed.

Tell us which rooms and roughly where through our quote page, or WhatsApp a photo of the wall and the fuse board. Our extra sockets and power page shows the kind of work we do.

Questions we get asked about this