Consumer Unit Wiring

[RF Lighting]

I'm referring to an FCU supplied off the 16A radial which supplies the sockets.

How will a fault on the lights fused at 3A take out the sockets fused at 16A? Do you know what discrimination is?

 

[17thman]

err, the op was asking about how to supply a garage from the household CU, iggifer said a 16A supply would be good. your method would be to supply it with 16A and then run the the lighting off the 16A radial socket circuit. "you say, how could a fault on the lights take out the sockets". well and earth fault would presuming there was an rcd in circuit, either at the supply end, not advised, or in the garage.

Yes I know what descrimination is!, that is why it would not be beyond the scope of let, say £30.00, to supply with a 20A fuse, non rcd ptrotected and then run to a garage CU and split the final circuits in 16A sockets and 6A lights.

descrimination and inconvienience in the event of a fault are 2 different thing, but can both me managed for £30 quid more.

why run lights of a socket radial in a remote location? when it can be done so easily, a lot better

 

[RF Lighting]

There's no differencebetween splitting the sockets and lights with an FCU as there is with a garbage sorry garage consumer unit, except you save on installing a redundant piece of junk if you just use an FCU.

Why RCD the lights at all?

Those "garage" consumer units are up there with fire rated spot lights and cross bonding boilers whith the hard of thinking have been told they have to install, and repeat it parrot fashioned with out actually thinking about what they're doing.

 

[17thman]

how would you propose to rcd the sockets and not the lights in a swa supplied remote location?

 

[RF Lighting]

RCD sockets or an RCD

 

[17thman]

well, not a good idea to supply the swa with an rcd, so if you want 2/3 doubles sockets outlets with integral rcd protection, then you think that is better than supplying them via a garage cu, with a supply mcb of say 20 or 32A and appropriate cable and fusing off to 16A and 6A. why not supply the garage to a cu with a 60943-3 and then 61009 to the sockets and 60898 to the lights? Either way a cu is better

 

[RF Lighting]

In your average garage with a socket and a light it's pointless. Nothing but a waste of time and money.

If you're going for a more complicated installation then a CU usually is a good idea, but not one of those dreadful garage CUs.

 

[17thman]

regards RF, we can leave it there then. We may have been coming at it from different angles. all agreed.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

RF - what is it, in your mind, that makes a 4-module CU necessarily a dreadful piece of garbage?

Isn't this, for example:

just as good as this:

only a bit smaller?

 

[Greenie9657]

Hi people.

Thanks for the replys. Ive taken a picture of underneath my stairs (and luckly thats where the fuse box is) to ponder. It seems there is a machanic and digital meter both wired in and the CU on the left is what ive been using to isolate circuits but any ideas why i have the one on the right as well? I followed wires and it looks like the supply comes from the street and into the box on the right, goes through the meters and fuse then supplies the box on the left before shooting off around the house. Can I get all these removed and have just the one CU that i mentioned before?

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• Greenie9657
• 21 Dec 2012
• 2

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[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

The CU to the right is newer than that to the left.
If you isolated the right hand CU and see what no longer works that would be a good indicator of what circuits are installed on it.
Is there a circuit chart with it or markings identifying the circuit under the visor?
The white cable seems to be heading downwards, what type of floors do you have, any below house power required?

 

[bernardgreen]

The big black box is a radio controlled time switch for controlling the power to Off Peak loads ( storage heaters and water heating )

The white box is the meter and it has two counters, one for day rate and one for the Off peak rate

The consumer unit on the right is only supplied with power when the time switch is in Off Peak mode.

The consumer unit on the left is supplied all the time.

The small wire from time switch to the meter is the control wire to tell the meter whether to count units on the Day rate meter or the Off peak rate meter. (

 

[Greenie9657]

The CU to the right is newer than that to the left.
If you isolated the right hand CU and see what no longer works that would be a good indicator of what circuits are installed on it.
Is there a circuit chart with it or markings identifying the circuit under the visor?
The white cable seems to be heading downwards, what type of floors do you have, any below house power required?

Hi
No below power is required. The house is 1930s build and all the floors are boarded. When i switch the consumer unit off on the left it kills all power to the house. Ive never touch the one on the right. Ive always tested everything ive been working near or on with a multi meter and its always been off. The house did have storage heaters but hasnt anymore. The water heater which we no longer have installed is run from the CU on the left.

 

[Greenie9657]

what time is off peak?
Ive just thought that if i tested the wire where the storage heater used to be and theres no power and im sure the other night it sparked when i touched the wire. Perhaps this storage heater wiring only comes live at off peak periods. Ill volt test it in off peak tonight.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Well it sounds like when the water heaters were removed that the power supply had not been.
Off peak is generally between 10pm and 8.30am.