Getting access to a consumer unit with a new circuit

Hi all

Please can someone advise me on this? My partner has a GE consumer unit and he wants a new circuit to add some sockets and lights into his garage.

The only problem is that the room that the CU is in has been insulated after the event and the CU is 'embedded' in the wall so that the front plate is the only thing that sticks out from the wall. We can't get access to the back of the CU as it is fixed to the outer wall and surrounded by the insulated wall.

All the other wires come in the back through a single hole.

My question is, is there a straightforward and safe way to put in this new circuit wire through the side of the CU (drill a hole or cut out a section in the side of the CU) if you ensure that it is sealed and meets the IP rating afterwards?

It would seem logical to me but I don't know if that is completely off track and / or illegal / unsafe

Please help!

many thanks
Bbee1

Could you please post up a picture?

Cable could be run in in plastic trunking or conduit, access in to the cu has to be via the base side walls or via the rear.

Hi there

here you go - hope you can see what I mean...! Not the best job I have seen! As you can see the wall has been installed around the CU and until I took the front off to have a look, the plaster was stuck to it too. So it is nigh on impossible to access the sides of the CU without removing the wall alongside the box!

Bbee1 View media item 53039

looks like a sheet of plasterboard has been fitted with a cut out in the size and shape of the CU, rather than the CU being embedded in the wall as such.

The only real way is to do it properly and remove the plaster board and access the CU in the usual way. Anything else would be cowboy esque, lazy and potentially dangerous.

No-one has mentioned that the garage circuit may best be supplied by a connection from a Henley block near the incoming main fuse and meter. This may even be in the garage (it certainly is in mine).

Unless you are able to drill straight out the back to get cable to external wall, which bearing in mind all other cables are located in that area, so could damage them. So the two practical solutions would be do as bhm1712 has suggested and cut in to the wall material or alternatively remount the box by bring in out, so the knock-outs are accessible, likely that some cables may not be long enough and need extending.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I am going to suggest taking out the back of the wall that runs at 90 degrees to the CU which is the wall into the garage. Access then should be straightforward to the left had side of the CU and hopefully to some punchouts that should be there.

Thanks for your suggestions

DetlefSchmitz said:

No-one has mentioned that the garage circuit may best be supplied by a connection from a Henley block near the incoming main fuse and meter. This may even be in the garage (it certainly is in mine).

Click to expand...

And if you're lucky and your elecy company fits free isolators/switch fuse you could save the time/cost of a visit from the meter fairy to do their magic with the seals and then your electrician can just connect it up a henley block and run one set of tails to the current fuseboard and then the other set to whatever is needed to sort out the garage and it'll save making a mess of the plaster around the current board

but that assumes you have space near the meter to mount the required henley and ancillary stuff