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I have a double socket in my garage, that is connected to a small consumer unit in the garage, which is fed from a 13A fused switch inside the house, which in turn is fed from a circuit breaker in the house consumer unit.

I would like to add more sockets in different locations around the garage. I understand the total load will be limited to the 13A overall, and so I would be able to "chain" extra sockets as a radial, without making a ring.

However, because I'm placing these on the surface of brick, I will have to run the cabling over the surface. This means it would be much easier if each socket just had one cable going to it. But I only have 1 switch in the garage consumer unit, so I don't think I can run each socket as it's own radial.

What can I do? Do I have to chain each socket together or is there a way to drop just one wire down from the ceiling to each socket and still have them all connect back to the single breaker switch in the garage?

(This is in the UK)

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Your plan sounds viable.
You can run any number of sockets off a fused spur, so long as the total load will never exceed 13A. You can only run one socket off the ring if the spur is not fused.

Each separate ring is fed from the consumer unit via an individual 32A type B circuit breaker and a separate 30mA RCCB via a split load board or a combined 32A/30mA RCBO device.

Radials require a lower trip, at 16A rather than 32A -

Socket Radials: Can be used where only a few sockets may be required, such as a conservatory or garage. Fed from the consumer unit via an individual 16A type B circuit breaker and a separate 30mA RCCB via a split load board or a combined 16A/30mA RCBO device. It is wired using 2.5 mm Twin and Earth PVC cable and goes to each socket and stops at the last socket and does not return to the consumer unit.

Source: Sockets : Ring & Radial Circuits

There is no difference, electrically, whether you run your parallels in the back of each socket, or run them individually from a single location.

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  • To add, electrically it makes no difference if your radial circuit looks like a daisy chain of sockets or a star configuration.with a single wire going to each socket from a central location where they all connect together and connect to the feeder wire.
    – Bart van Ingen Schenau
    Commented Nov 24, 2023 at 12:16
  • Physically, if I want to have three sockets each with only one cable going to them - how can I wire that to the board? Do I use a junction box to create the hub of the star?
    – Corvus
    Commented Nov 24, 2023 at 13:02
  • Yes. You need something that won't get too crowded in the terminals. Maybe either a regular busbar box or one of the new Wago systems [which I haven't used but they're starting to become popular here.]
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Nov 24, 2023 at 15:48

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