Consumer Unit - is this normal?

  • Thread starter Deleted member 15266
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Deleted member 15266

Just moved to a 13 year old house. The consumer unit is in the garage, high up on the wall, and you can only get to the garage by going out the front door and opening it up. Bit of a nuisance late at night. Our old house had a fuse box with wire and I think we only changed the fuse wire twice in 17 years! This box has tripped twice in 4 weeks. Would it be feasible to have an electrician move it into the house? What kind of cost?
 
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.....Or establish the reason for the breakers tripping.

What is tripping? is it a MCB? (usually in the CU, with a single switch toggle)
Or an RCD? (usually has a switch toggle and a test button, may be in the CU or a seperate box)

Is it always the same one?

Does it cut off all the power, or just one circuit?
 
The first was when a light bulb blew - the lighting switch on the consumer unit went down so we flicked it up and all OK. The second - something accidently touched the inside of the toaster and the power in the house went down but not the lights. Flicked the switch back up and all OK. Sorry to be a pest but I've always lived in old houses so this is new to me.
 
From what you said, the consumer unit appears to be doing the job it was designed to do. Modern RCD and MCB consumer units are more sensitive to potential dangers, like poking in your toaster with a metal object (risk of electrocution), and when lamps blow, B6 lighting circuit MCB's often trip out.
 
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Many thanks. Do you think it's possible to move it into the house? If so, what would that cost (approx)?
 
Thanks so much. I'll look to having this done then.
 
^it would be cheaper (and in my opinion better) if you prevent it tripping.

OK so for the toaster example its a one off, so the inconvenience shouldnt be a big bother, it probably saved someone getting very hurt or worse.

For the lights, as stated above its normal when a bulb blows to trip the MCB. There are a couple of ways to prevent this.

-To have the breaker swapped for a C6 rather than a B6, if your installation characteristics allow (most houses that arent too big and are wired in 1.5mm are ok, but things should be checked not swapped willy niilly)

-to use energy efficient lighting -these bulbs dont 'blow' they just get dimmer, and if you do the maths you'll see they do save you loads of money, so thats the route I'd go down (/have gone down).
 
I strongly agree about the CFLs. I used to get lots of trips from the kitchen spotlights (spots are particularly prone to causing MCBs to trip, when they burn out, and the kitchen has a number of them) and have changed to energy saving spots. These last for years, and don't create a surge when they fail.

I can't remember when I last had to reset the MCB.

I would also suggest buying a torch, and saving £499.

I have some Emergency Lighting, but I'm very eccentric.
 
^and costs money, cfls save money, and now they are practically (and sometimes actually) giving them away there isnt the initial outlay issue.
 
but when these energy saving bulbs 'blow up' giving off a nasty smell...
does that not trip a B6 MCB ?
 
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