Hey man,
Welcome to ECN!!
Good to see another Kiwi find their way here.
This socket-outlet thing has been going on for some years.
One guy that I did my time under once told me, that there is no limit on the number of outlets you can have on one circuit, with a circuit breaker on it.
This sort of attitude is just plain wrong and only ends in tears when there is nuisance tripping of the breaker, caused by poor design of the installation.
Now, I don't have a copy of the latest Wiring Rules at home here (it's on a shelf at work).
I think what you are looking at though is the maximum demand tables, used for working out total connected load.
The allowance of 1A per socket-outlet works on what is known as
diversity, in that not ALL of the socket-outlets on that circuit are going to be used at the same time, unless you're really tight with the number of sockets you install, in a given area.
This is somewhat different though to the actual planning of working out how many sockets you are going to have on a given circuit, this varies with each individual installation and it's layout of rooms, etc.
And personally I'd NEVER go with the set-up the Architect has shown on his plans, I've never seen anything remotely realistic in the time I've been working off plans.
What has also "muddied the waters" so to speak, is the fact, that some electricians also use 1.5mm˛ on a 16A breaker for some shorter runs.
I hope that this post has been of some use to you, if not, please by all means, let me know.
Cheers,
Mike.
