consumer unit & rewiring

[MrsGarner]

short and sweet question.

my father in law has just qualified as an electrician and has insisted on rewiring our new house (new to us but 1950s built)

he wont start the rewiring until we have the consumer unit (which has been ordered) but I was under the impression you could run cables and attach all the switches etc and then connect the unit last? am i wrong?

(all channels have been done and are ready)

 

[riveralt]

Its a horses for courses answer.

Even if no one is living in the property invariably there is still a need for power when completing an electrical installation.

This can be achieved by moving the old board to a temporary place nearby and setting up a short socket radial to several sockets on a nearby back board say and disconnecting all the other circuits.
Then fitting the new board in the old boards place - run new circuits to the new board and complete dead testing. Then bring power back to the new board and complete live testing.

Alternatively the new board can be fitted in place of the old and the same system set up - problem is here you are working with a live board.

So a new board isn't absolutely necessary to start the cabling but I would personally always prefer to have the new board available at the start of an installation - so I can work out meter tail lengths and directions.

 

[MrsGarner]

Thank you.

I suspected that that would be the answer.

Appreciate your reply.

 

[wingcoax]

My first major job was a total re-wire of a three bed terrace in south wales back in the seventies. We ran all the new cables and fitted the back boxes, then tested and second fixed and connected to new CU whilst still on the original supply. Then called SWEB in to connect to meter. Job done in one week. PS house was my brothers.