Shower Consumer Unit

[planemad]

Just out of interest a friend has asked.

To connect a shower consumer to a system - do you connect live and neutrals and earth from main consumer unit using 10mm cable or do you have to get the electricity board in to T off of the main meter tails?

 

[GaryMo]

Tell your friend to employ the services of a qualified electrician.
It'll be a much safer start to the new year.

 

[EdwardCurrent]

Hello again Planemad,

A shower is usually connected inside a C/U, or sometimes its own enclosure.
It is not just a case of connecting up L/N/E.
The power rating of the shower, length of run etc would all have to be taken into account. Then you could work out your protective device arrangements and so on..
It's notifiable. A job for an electrician I think.
Regards

Ed

 

[planemad]

Hi Ed -

I understand that the 8.5 kw shower has to be 10mm cable using a 40a mcb with a 30mA RCD which would be supplied by a separate consumer unit.

He don't really want to call out spaky now as we think that we may first need the elec board fit a user isolator or T from tails.

 

[GaryMo]

I understand that the 8.5 kw shower has to be 10mm cable using a 40a mcb with a 30mA RCD which would be supplied by a separate consumer unit.

But do you understand about installation methods for cabling, thermal insulation in particular which may or may not mean a 10mm2 cable is required?

 

[planemad]

The run would be 6m - surface mounted in trunking which is mainly in cupboard where CU is and under stairs routing straight up to the wall behind the shower.

I would think that 6mm would be OK to use - but 10mm is better and would future proof him if he ever get a new shower with a higher KW.

 

[securespark]

6mm² in trunking is limited to 38A, provided there are no other correction factors like grouping or temperature or thermal insulation to take account of.

When you say from the main consumer unit using 10mm², I hope you do not intend to connect that cable size to the main tails in the CU...

 

[planemad]

I'm not doing it see first post - What I need to know is how is the new small shower consumer unit connected to the system.

Via a sparky doing the work

Or

Does he need to call the elec board to T off of the meter tails??

 

[Spark123]

Via a sparky. The normal way would be to have henley blocks fitted in the tail - he or yourself can arrange to have the electic board come and disconnect the supply and reconnect on completion or have them fit an isolator, or he could do it by being a little bit naughty but I wont say anything else on that as it isn't really for DIY!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I'm not doing it see first post - What I need to know is how is the new small shower consumer unit connected to the system.

Via a sparky doing the work

Or

Does he need to call the elec board to T off of the meter tails??

Both.

Your friend needs an electrician to do the work because the items on his side of the meter are nothing to do with the DNO, and they will not install henley blocks, but the electrician will have to call the DNO out to remove the service fuse to make it safe for him to do the work.

But I would have thought you had more than enough to worry about with your own renovation issues without acting as a go-between for your friend - just tell him to get a registered electrician and let the electrician sort out getting the job done.