cabinet for consumer unit

[ladwey]

I've been asked to build a cabinet for a consumer unit. It's not the prettiest! I've got a question for anyone who's done this before, or who has seen a similar setup before -- the two wires on the right which dip down below the top of the architrave are going to be a pain in the arse. I can do a nice cabinet straight along the top of the door no problem, but to fully enclose everything to the right of the door, it will have to sort of bulge downwards and wrap around the doorframe, which will look a bit mental, in my professional opinion.

Can I ask what anyone else would do in this situation? Is it possible to unscrew the wooden board it's all attached to and shift it up a few inches? Or unscrew the unit itself and shift it upwards and across from where it's currently attached to the board? A hole in the bottom of the cabinet for the wires to stick out? I don't want to touch any electrics, of course. -- Wondering if anyone's seen a good solution to this before. Thanks!

uild a cabinet

 

[chivers67]

At the top of the board is an SWA cable which looks like it could be moved over to a knockout further to the right. The Tails with the "service loop" could be re-installed to enter from the top of the board but may not reach the DB main switch so could need re-wiring with longer tails.

If the armoured cable was placed further right it could be possible to move the board up but it really depends on how all the circuits feed into it. Really needs the cover taken off to see. Looking at the wall below the DB and how uneven it is most of the circuits may go down. Certainly looks like one is in trunking. How many circuits are there?

 

[plugwash]

Does anyone know what those white boxes that look kind like meters but without any cables coming out the bottom are?

 

[ladwey]

Details of the white boxes and circuits attached. There are three cables that go into the white trunking underneath.

I had wondered (not being an electrician) if it would just be possible to take the cover off the consumer unit, dismount it, and screw it back to the board a little higher up and a little to the right, so that those loops on the cables coming out underneath would be straightened out a bit and hang a bit higher up. There's plenty of slack in that SWA cable which could just be fed up into the loft space a bit. I suppose it would depend on how much slack there is in the various cables coming out of the back of the consumer unit -- it would only need to be an inch or two.

Anyway, maybe this is impossible!- just hoping there might be a way to box it up attractively.

 

[sparkwright]

Probably easiest to get an electrician to move they grey tails - by running them across the top of the consumer unit, then into the right hand side of the cu.
He would longer tails.
He will have to put some kind of bung in the bottom of the cu to get rid of the hole.

Can't you just build round what's there, and save yourself this aggro?
I realise it would look naff.

 

[sparkwright]

What does the customer say about it all?

 

[SUNRAY]

The 2 most obvious solutions I see