Unbelievable….No CU

[sparkwright]

Untitled

• sunsno
• 6 Oct 2011
• 1

Just been asked to look into doing some work in this flat.
Hey, who needs a Consumer Unit anyway…..???!!!

Perfectly normal for an old property, though room for improvement. It was done like that; if a new circuit was required another switch fuse was added - over the years more circuits like showers and cookers were gradually required.

Often today we do similar things - if for example a shower is added and there is no room in the cu or it doesn't have an rcd then it can be easier to add an extra one way board or whatever.

Perhaps someone can show him that picture of a cellar wall that is absolutely covered in switch fuses and meter tails etc...

 

[ban-all-sheds]

 

[sparkwright]

Hmmm, not as many individual switch fuses as I thought, but still a good picture.

 

[westie101]

Perhaps that ^^^^^ is why I'm glad that my responsibility sort of stops at the cut-out.

I recall many years ago, when part P didn't exist, rewiring my parent's house. If I recall there were 5 separate fuse switches.
It is also worth recalling in very, very old installations that it was common to have separate lighting and power fuse switches as in the early days there were separate lighting and power meters.

 

[viewer]

A few years ago in Crewe, I was looking at an installation not unlike that show in the OP. Switched all off to find lighting still working. Eventually found a pull out isolation stoppper behind the woodwork. The original wiring had been left for the lighting circuit as new power/cooker circuits had been installed. No idea why it was just covered over, but potential fatality as no RCD/RCBO protection and could not find any fuse for the circuit.

 

[Stoday]

It is also worth recalling in very, very old installations that it was common to have separate lighting and power fuse switches as in the early days there were separate lighting and power meters.

Before Economy 7 and E10 tariffs were introduced in the 1970's there were separate meters and CUs for Restricted Hours (off peak) circuits. They were discontinued three decades ago.

 

[mfarrow]

They were discontinued three decades ago.

Many E7 customers still do this don't they? Especially if the supplier gives them a timeswitch.

My house was rewired with 2 CUs in the early 90s. The second CU was off the DNO's timeswitch and only used for the washing machine and imersion heater.

 

[JohnW2]

Many E7 customers still do this don't they? Especially if the supplier gives them a timeswitch.

I don't know if any legacy setups are still out there, but for a long time now, E7 customers have been supplied with dual-tarif meter (and timeswitch). Everything goes through the same meter, and the timeswitch merely switches from one kWH 'counter' to the other....

My house was rewired with 2 CUs in the early 90s. The second CU was off the DNO's timeswitch and only used for the washing machine and imersion heater.

As above, the advantage of a dual tarif meter is that all one's electricity is cheap during the off-peak period, not just selected circuits.

Kind Regards, John.

 

[sunsno]

Indeed, you can get Consumer Units with fuses but I suspect the iPad toting 20 something, living in this apartment would rather have some shiny new RCBOs to play with, the next time he plugs in too many phone chargers, Wii accessories and laptops ???

And the point I was trying to make, as I have already said, is that to me it is an unusual arrangement.
I’m afraid unlike many of you guys on here; I didn’t grow up working on the kind of wiring you had in the 60s. !

No doubt, sometime in the future, when everyone is happily drying their hair whilst sat in the bath ….
I can reminisce about how in the 2000s we all thought it was mad to allow a Socket in a Bathroom!!

Times they are a changing


Thanks for all the comments, we all live and learn.

 

[Paul_C]

I'm not sure when CUs, as we now know them, first came into being

It depends on what you mean by "as we know them." The MEM style in the picture (the one on the right) is different from, say, the Wylex Standard board only in the physical arrangement. It was still a double-pole switch plus four rewireable fuses for branch circuits (in the era when the average house was being wired with just four final circuits: 30A cooker, 30A ring, 15A immersion heater, 5A lights). The consumer's supply control unit (as it was known then) is defined in a post-war British Standard, and certainly by the time of the 13th edition was being recommended. From Regulation 101, relating to main switchgear for the installation:

NOTE.- In a single-phase installation not exceeding 60 amperes current rating the switchgear should preferably be combined in a consumer's supply control unit (see B.S. 1454).

The main operational difference between that MEM board and something like the Wylex Standard range is in having to turn off the main switch in order to remove the cover to replace a fuse, as with the older side-handle metal-clad 1- and 2-way units which were common before the war.

The Wylex Standard and MEM's equivalent in that newer style were certainly in use during the 1950's.

Many E7 customers still do this don't they? Especially if the supplier gives them a timeswitch.

The modern Economy 7 tariff uses a dual-rate meter and a timeclock which switches the whole house over to the lower rate at night. There can also be a contactor feeding a separate DB for storage heaters etc.

The old "White Meter" system was slightly different. The timeclock still operated a contactor to provide a feed to a nighttime-only DB for heating. But the normal 24-hour DB still ran through a regular single-rate meter. So the lower night rate was available only for the specific loads connected via the white meter.

 

[JohnW2]

No doubt, sometime in the future, when everyone is happily drying their hair whilst sat in the bath …. I can reminisce about how in the 2000s we all thought it was mad to allow a Socket in a Bathroom!! Times they are a changing

Maybe, but that's not the direction in which regulations have been moving .... maybe you'll be reminiscing about how in the 2000s we all thought it was acceptable to have any electricity in a bathroom

Kind Regards, John.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Indeed, you can get Consumer Units with fuses but I suspect the iPad toting 20 something, living in this apartment would rather have some shiny new RCBOs to play with, the next time he plugs in too many phone chargers, Wii accessories and laptops ???

Ask him.

After all, he is the one paying you, so it would only be polite to give him what he wants and/or not make him pay for things he doesn't want.

And the point I was trying to make, as I have already said, is that to me it is an unusual arrangement.

Maybe you should have acquired more experience before striking out on your own. Your customers aren't going to appreciate someone working on things they've never seen before.

Real life is not like a 2391 test board.

I’m afraid unlike many of you guys on here; I didn’t grow up working on the kind of wiring you had in the 60s. !

I think you'll find that the installation you were looking at was alive and kicking in 2011.

 

[Paul_C]

Maybe, but that's not the direction in which regulations have been moving .... maybe you'll be reminiscing about how in the 2000s we all thought it was acceptable to have any electricity in a bathroom

And no doubt the youngsters then will be wondering how on earth we ever survived without individual 5mA RCD protection at each socket.