Consumer Unit - opinions wanted!

[riph72]

The gas/water pipes are located in the same room (garage) - should be as simple as connecting an earth from them to the board shown? I presume this is normally done on newer builds?

Yet but it would be better to connect everything to a main earthing terminal outside the consumer unit since there is not much room inside that wylex board and if you have not got an isolator you will be working very close to live cables which is not good.

Sorry, that is actually what I meant - there is an earth block to the left of the consumer unit, the earth lead shown goes to it.

 

[riph72]

Is that arrangement of connection between cutout and meter common - it's not something I recall having seen before?

Kind Regards, John.

I'm guessing the meter has been installed at a much later date? It looks considerably more modern than everything else!

 

[riph72]

Yet but it would be better to connect everything to a main earthing terminal outside the consumer unit since there is not much room inside that wylex board and if you have not got an isolator you will be working very close to live cables which is not good.

Agreed, but everyone is guessing about what goes on behind that bording. There might already be bonding in place and there might even be a MET external to the CU hidden there. If the cladding comes off easily, a photo or what happens behind it would obviously be helpful.

Kind Regards, John.

That's a good point - I might strip it away so I know what's going on. I've only lived there a month so have been treading gently so far!

 

[JohnW2]

Sorry, that is actually what I meant - there is an earth block to the left of the consumer unit, the earth lead shown goes to it.

As you will realise, that's what I half-suspected. Are there just two wires going to that earth block (the one we can see and one to the CU), or are there more? If there are more, they would probably be the bonding conductors to gas/water supply pipes that people have been asking about.

Kind Regards, John.

 

[ricicle]

The old saying is still valid "Fools rush in where angles fear to tread".

Trigonometry is a dangerous thing !

 

[JohnW2]

The old saying is still valid "Fools rush in where angles fear to tread".

Trigonometry is a dangerous thing !

...particularly when it's 3-dimensional

Kind Regards, John.

 

[ericmark]

Dam this spell checker I hadn't noticed what it had done.

 

[RF Lighting]

Is that arrangement of connection between cutout and meter common - it's not something I recall having seen before?

Kind Regards, John.

John, it's just a bit of concentric cable with moulded terminations on the end.

I beleive they were installed to make extraction of stolen electricity more difficult.

 

[JohnW2]

John, it's just a bit of concentric cable with moulded terminations on the end.

Yes, I can see that - but what's having to happen at the top of the cutout in order to facilitate that seems to be getting the N uncomfortably close to the L - that's what surprised me.

I beleive they were installed to make extraction of stolen electricity more difficult.

Yes, I can see it would help to achieve that.

Kind Regards, John.

 

[RF Lighting]

The straight con goes into the little square bit of plastic above the cutout. The live passes straight through, and the neutral comes back out of the top of the plastic block as a DI single and terminates into the standard N terminal on the cutout.

 

[JohnW2]

The straight con goes into the little square bit of plastic above the cutout. The live passes straight through, and the neutral comes back out of the top of the plastic block as a DI single and terminates into the standard N terminal on the cutout.

Oh, I see (I think!) - thanks. So that's a single moulding on top of the cutout, is it - I thought it was two separate ones? How does the neutral of the straight con metamorphosise into a DI single - is the whole thing a factory-manufactured assembly (moulding + cables), or what?

Kind Regards, John.

 

[RF Lighting]

Yeah it comes as a pre made piece. That's about as much as I can tell you.

 

[riph72]

Thanks for all the replies, I'll digest all this info for a day or two...

I'll also try to get that cladding off the wall over the weekend so I can see what (if anything) is going on behind it.

 

[securespark]

Yeah it comes as a pre made piece. That's about as much as I can tell you.

Maybe a helpful soul such as Westie could post a piccie of one and elaborate.

 

[JohnW2]

Maybe a helpful soul such as Westie could post a piccie of one and elaborate.

That would indeed be very helpful, and educational.

Kind Regards, John.