Wylex or MK split load CU

At second fix stage on the house refurb now, and a bit of a misunderstanding between myself and the electrician has left us both thinking the other would supply the consumer unit.

I'm looking quickly at screwfix and they're offering quite a range (MK, volex, wylex, crabtree and marbro) of them Wylex and MK are familiar as my electrician gave me a Wylex part number to start off a while back, but I see that MK are a bit cheaper.

As professional electricians which would you prefer? I get the impression MK are more of a 'quality' brand, whereas Wylex, volex crabtree etc are more budet-orientated - hence my suprise that what I see to be equivilent spec is actually cheaper for MK than for Wylex.

In particular I'm looking to supply and populate a 15way high integrity split-load board.

Would this MK one do? MK split load board - the illustration doesn't show any devices between the isolator and the first RCD - can it be configured that way?

Thanks for any thoughts..

Why not ask the electrician what he'd prefer you to supply? Or is your next thread going to describe a misunderstanding between yourself and the electrician regarding who is going to install the CU?

Is this the electrician who keeps going on holiday so you can't ask him? He's always cropping up on here. I don't know how he makes a living.

Of the stuff sold by screwfix, MK is OK but not what it used to be. Crabtree is good but has an unusual device/busbar connection which might maker future changes or additions more difficult.

Do you really need 15-way?

Why don't you get RCBOs?

I get on fine with the electrician, he's been quite patient with me given he's having to work around a complete house refurbishment that is taking far too long.

15Way has been recommended for future expansion, and the fact I've got multiple rings, extra radials and a variety of stuff going on. There's also a couple of RCBO's for some resiliant circuits (fileserver, alarms & such).

He said he usually carries Wylex in stock, however I'm not sure if that because he can get a good margin on it, or it has features he likes. In the past I've found that not all sparks will sell/install the best product. I don't want to give the guy junk, but in the same way if I can find a nicer product for the same amount - what's the harm?

I think the question answered itself as soon as I called my local electrical factors (rather than screwfix). They did the Wylex board plus all the breakers I needed for about a third what screwfix wanted.

Thanks for your thoughts though..

Be aware you will need a 'high integrity' board rather than simply 'dual rcd' to make use of RCBO's.

skenk said:

Be aware you will need a 'high integrity' board rather than simply 'dual rcd' to make use of RCBO's.

Click to expand...

yup, it's got high integrity written on the side of the box

It's the NH range: NHRS15SSLHI

I got one of those. Rather flimsy, but ample space if it's not too crammed with RCBOs on the right.