Which Consumer Unit will best suit my need?

[Shinerwright]

Hi all,

Just refurbishing my new house and as I have all ceilings down I thought now is probably a good time to renew/sort out the wiring, which is nearly complete.

All that is left is the consumer unit and the kitchen loom, which is why I need to decide on the CU as to whether I need to run a seperate loom to the freezer or not.

The main problem is that I am going to be building a garage which will have a feed to power tools and a welder. (It will have its own consumer unit inside)

I have been looking into different possible configurations for the CU and need some advice on which would be the best route to take;

I don't think a Dual RCD CU would be good for me mainly due to the garage as this will probably cause alot of nuisance tripping.

Split load CU might be an option as I could have lights, fridge/freezer, and garage on the un-protected side and the rest on an RCD.

A full RCBO configuration will be best option but is it worth paying that much extra for?

Finally the one I think would best suit me is a 2+5+5 RCD configuration which would allow me to have the fridge/freezer and garage seperate from the dual RCD's

Just wondered if anyone has any experience of these setups and can help me choose the best option.

Many thanks,

Martin

 

[sherlockholmes]

Loom?

I recently chose a cu fully stocked with rcbos in the main house because I don't like this idea of a fault taking out half the board. For the garage I'm in the process of having a separate supply run to it split after the meter, rather than run it all off a single way in the house cu.
It's personal choice really on both counts. Personally I think rcbos are better for the obvious reason, any circuit can develop a fault, not just the usual suspects. And a sub main to the garage keeps things flexible and separate, and means that if anything trips the reset is just at hand rather than back in the house.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Just refurbishing my new house and as I have all ceilings down I thought now is probably a good time to renew/sort out the wiring, which is nearly complete.

When you applied for Building Regulations approval, what did you say would be the way you'd comply with P1?

All that is left is the consumer unit and the kitchen loom, which is why I need to decide on the CU as to whether I need to run a seperate loom to the freezer or not.

Your use of the word "loom" makes me wonder if you've got experience of car wiring and therefore think that you can rewire a house because it's just wires.

I don't think a Dual RCD CU would be good for me mainly due to the garage as this will probably cause alot of nuisance tripping.

What makes you think you have to have the garage supplied from the house CU?

How much experience of designing this sort of thing do you have?

Split load CU might be an option as I could have lights, fridge/freezer, and garage on the un-protected side and the rest on an RCD.

When you renewed/sorted out the wiring what did you do to ensure that 522.6.7 did not apply?

A full RCBO configuration will be best option but is it worth paying that much extra for?

Only you can decide.

Finally the one I think would best suit me is a 2+5+5 RCD configuration which would allow me to have the fridge/freezer and garage seperate from the dual RCD's

Will that comply with the Wiring Regulations?

Just wondered if anyone has any experience of these setups and can help me choose the best option.

What experience do you have of them?

 

[Taylortwocities]

Which Consumer Unit will best suit my need?

The one supplied by the electrician doing the work

 

[sherlockholmes]

Why assume he's going to bypass the legal requirements? It's not as simple as 'go with whatever the electrician says', there are a range of valid options on choosing a CU and method of wiring up an outbuilding.

Sure he's probably going to wire it himself and not get it tested or certified, but the questions he actually asked can still be answered with a minimum of assholery.