Kitchen Extension Electrics, Ealing

The brief

The existing consumer unit was a 1990s split-load board with no room for additional circuits. The extension required: a ring main for kitchen appliances, a dedicated cooker circuit, a separate circuit for the island sockets, LED strip lighting under the cabinets, a series of ceiling pendants over the dining table, under-tile heating for the new floor, and an external waterproof socket for the garden. The existing house circuits also needed to be reviewed as part of the upgrade.

What we did

First fix started once the roof and walls were weather-tight. We replaced the old consumer unit with a 20-way dual RCD board to accommodate all the new circuits plus headroom for a future EV charger the client mentioned wanting in the driveway at some point. All existing house circuits were checked and we re-ran the upstairs ring main which had a recorded fault on the previous EICR.

In the extension, we ran a 6mm² cable for the Range cooker on its own 32A circuit, a ring main for the worktop sockets, and a separate radial for the island unit. The underfloor heating is a 200W/m² electric mat wired to a programmable thermostat — we coordinated with the builder to get the mat down before the tile adhesive went on, then came back to connect the thermostat once tiling was finished.

Ceiling pendants over the dining table are on a dimmer circuit — the client chose four fittings on a linear ceiling rose bar, which we wired as a single switched/dimmed load. Under-cabinet LED strips run on a 12V driver mounted inside the carcass of one of the wall units, triggered by the main kitchen lighting switch but on a separate channel so they can be used independently.

All circuits were tested at first fix and again at second fix. The completed installation was notified to the local authority under Part P and full certificates issued.