Steptoe

I just wish I could think of an excuse to buy that,

I get my IPA from local independent chemist, its about 5/6£ for a litre.

I suppose my point is, There is no one size fits all, Radials are more and more becoming the accepted norm, it's just, how many,? For a cheaper install, then yes, RFCs are still very viable, a normal 2 , 3 bed semi, 1 x RFC for kitchen/utility, 1 for rest of house is still very viable. 1 lights up, 1 down, shower, cooker, that's it, 6 circuits, cheap cheerful install, typical rental, That same install could turn into 14 circuits easily for segregation purposes using radials. Horses for courses, or how high spec an install you want done, and are willing to pay for.

It is with Zs, Quite a few at the cheaper end of the market, mostly for private rental, Most owner occupiers are willing to pay the little bit extra and have a properly designed and installed radial system, Radials can often be much quicker and less cable consuming to install, it's the extra fitted equipment that ramps up the cost slightly, and obviously dependant ok no the number of radials the client wants, then sometimes the cable saving goes the other way, I've done some with 2 radials to a room as they never wanted power to trip out a whole room, or more usually, 2 rooms split across 2 radials, slightly less expensive. I've done some quite modest 4 bedroom houses with close to 30 circuits in them. And some fairly flash 6 bed+ with fewer than 15, horses for courses. I have a very modest 2&1/2 bed semi with 14 circuits, not including shed. But, tbh, that's ridiculous, and only because I could, ( "for free" )

Most joiners I know are using either Makita, or Milwaukee. No idea of price though.

Don't worry @lakelandfolk There is a lot of misconception regarding electrical installations, Rather than take advice from a lot of people on the internet that like to think they know more about electrical installations than qualified, competent, registered and experienced professionals, I'd recommend your best course of action is to engage the services of a good reputable competent electrician that will be able to guide you in what he will be happy to connect, test, and sign off as being compliant. This is an area where a little knowledge can be very dangerous, as some peoples interpretations of the regulations, and their installation practices clearly show,

I don't know what your appliance monitor is, but unless its a calibrated volt meter I wouldn't have much faith in it being anywhere near accurate, I only have a basic volt meter and it is calibrated to 2 decimal places, (although it reads to 3,) All your calcs are wrong, they should be made wrt 230volts, not 240 You have a bad install it seems, badly designed (perhaps not designed at all, just done because its always done like that), and badly installed, if a properly designed circuit has a volt drop of over 2% in 10 metres I don't think anyone could honestly say it had been designed properly. I assume your oven is on its own radial circuit,? Also, are you saying your install is 40years old, as in your 40 year old home,? If that is the case then it may just be a matter of end of life deterioration It would he very interesting to know some continuity reading on these circuits as there is very clearly some issue with the figures you are reporting , assuming they are actually accurate that is. RFCs are an ourdayes throwback to the days of copper shortages, One of their biggest limitations is area covered is limited so of no use in larger installs. Radials have been the future for the past 20 years at least, it really seems to be only mainland UK that is very slow on the uptake of a lot of things, whilst the rest I'd the world moves on. 10mm for kitchen hobs has probably been more norm now than not for the past 10 years or so, people with large electric ranges, inductance hobs etc, I don't see why not, if using the correction factor for ducting , most islands I do normally end up with a bit of 3" duct as that was what the builder had when the floor guys were there.

Even 'normal' Meters these days can be fitted dual rate. Try and not have a smart meter fitted,

Common misconception The tails are NOT double insulated They are insulated and sheathed, there is a big difference. Having 'common colour' tails is a fairly common thing BTW, I've even changed some old red&black common colour this week.

The regs don't quote the minimum required, they have 'headroom' allowed, as they work to 80% capacity Zs, going much beyond this is simply an excerise in wasted money, for any form of minimal gain you might think you will get.

Pilot drill straight through the pipe all the way outside, Then you can core from the outside in and not worry about propping the pipe up while you core from inside out. If you are putting a T in then you can afford to lose a bit of the pipe anyway,

2foot is plenty of crawl space, I've rewired underfloor with less,,,,,. Wouldn't want to be cutting a soil pipe with contents unknown stuck to the sides in that confined space,,,,. So ye, I'd go with @Onoff and cut above, then that crazy method of cutting from inside out.

Where on earth have you got that information from about cable sizing,? Thats plain and simply misinformed. Cable sizing calculations are all based on the resistance of the cable, volt drop, and power requirements already.

but that is an inherent problem nowadays with almost everything, the internet is full of 'experts' that are (at best) misinformed, and some just put across their own opinions as fact most people simply want to peddle their own version of events for their own gain, either financially, or egotistically.

will the cable have to pass through the insulation on the way up, or back down again? generic CCC for your runs would be 2.5mm radials for the 16A, and a 6mm for the 32A , and you have some headroom if the actual current usage of what you buy is increased on the 16A circuits,

insulation is your enemy when running cables in, do the runs pass through any?

apart from the fact the work wouldnt be compliant, and thus a notice of deviation would be required, for which there would be no justification .

Have you an isolator fitted,? If not get your electrician to fit one, and leave the tails from it to connect into the meter, the meter guy will then use the new tails.

How does he test the integrity of the flexible pipe to the cylinder,?

@Nickfromwales I feel your pain There are electricians and there are installers,,,, and, you always have the , I know more than the professionals brigade too.

its about having to be a licensed operator or some such rubbish, there are literally thousands of them in the country, but, if you do get caught they can be quite nasty to you, its probably because most of the ones on sale have harmonics all over the place and can interfere with 'proper' radio signals or some such stuff,

mobile phone repeaters

its obviously changed quite a lot, in the past the general consensus was that every 4th house was 'free' that is, the cost of building the 4th house was covered by the sale of the first 3, so whatever the 4th house sold for was the profit,

did you get a painter @Weegaz ? I know a guy based in Portglenone that does my brother's work for him (and my brother is a fussy fkr), he happened to be doing some work for him when I was over just before Xmas. I could ask him for his number if you want.

Cat 6 needs a fairly large bending radius compared with cat5 , that's all, tbh, for point to point in the average domestic situation you are not going to see any benefit between cat5 and cat6 , not much equipment can handle the speed of cat5e even, and that's only for transferring internal files, ultimately you are restricted to your internet speed for external files. ps, remember and use proper copper cable, not rubbish CCS or CCA