Consumer units - any fancy ones for inspiration?

[u587162]

Rewiring my whole house.

Could any of you tech type Sparkys pls make some suggestions of consumer units you would put in which whilst they serve their primary function, are also worth considering as a higher spec system and have digital displays or advanced functionality which they would love to have themselves.

Basically if cost was not an option, what make and models would you recommend (links please).

Thanks.

 

[EFLImpudence]

What would you like a digital display to show?

 

[Iggifer]

Not much point having a display in an Amd. 3 board, the door will always cover it!

 

[RF Lighting]

Schneider do power monitoring which connects to your computer for monitoring purposes.

 

[u587162]

Yes, for power monitoring. But also I'm a bit of a gadget nerd. and since a lot of things now have wifi or even zwave chips in them (anything from light bulb to a door lock to even as ridiculous as a kettle), I figured one consumer unit manufacturer must have stuck a chip in there to do something just to bump up the price by another £100 and offer some fancy displays and data?

 

[flameport]

I figured one consumer unit manufacturer must have stuck a chip in there to do something just to bump up the price by another £100 and offer some fancy displays and data?

What has actually happened is that manufacturers have changed to all-metal, shoved the same old parts inside, increased the price significantly and not offered any additional features at all.

 

[u587162]

Ok which consumer units would you guys recommend as being at the top end of the market and what other functions (other than displays etc) should the good ones have that do more than the usual?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I can't think of anything a CU should do beyond the usual.

 

[AndyPRK]

The usual question is whether you should have dual RCD or all RCBO (more expensive) or a combo.

 

[JohnW2]

The usual question is whether you should have dual RCD or all RCBO (more expensive) or a combo.

It is, and since the OP seems keen on spending as much as possible, I would think there is little doubt that all-RCBO is the choice for him. I may be missing something but, beyond the cost issue, I can't think of any downsides of having all RCBOs (unless someone knows that RCBOs are less 'reliable'?).

Kind Regards, John

 

[u587162]

Basically I'm almost gutting the whole house and starting from scratch, so just want to make sure I future proof everything as much as I can. You should see my questions on choice of water softeners

My builder has also allowed for certain allowance on rewiring cost and supplies/materials etc, so I want to make i get my money's worth and even if its a case of spending an extra £100 or so more, in the scheme of things, it's inconsequential compared to the overall 6 figure renovation cost.

Thanks.

 

[JohnW2]

My builder has also allowed for certain allowance on rewiring cost and supplies/materials etc, so I want to make i get my money's worth and even if its a case of spending an extra £100 or so more, in the scheme of things, it's inconsequential compared to the overall 6 figure renovation cost.

Fair enough. As I've just written, if cost is not a major issue, then you probably would be best advised to go for an 'all-RCBO' CU. As others have said, despite what you might imagine, there are few, if any, new-fangled functionalities of CUs for you to consider - just as they have always been, they are still basically just boxes containing switches and protective devices (MCBs, RCDs & RCBOs). Anything 'fancy' or 'new-fangled' in the electrical installation (e.g. 'automation' etc.) is going to be 'downstream' of the CU.

Kind Regards, John

 

[AndyPRK]

Downsides are:

1) Take up more room in the CU so can make wiring a pig.
2) Less likely to notice one has tripped.
3) You don't know if they have tripped due to overload or earth leakage.
4) That old argument on whether they are allowed on a TT supply / only isolate the line.

 

[Iggifer]

Downsides are:

1) Take up more room in the CU so can make wiring a pig.
2) Less likely to notice one has tripped.
3) You don't know if they have tripped due to overload or earth leakage.
4) That old argument on whether they are allowed on a TT supply / only isolate the line.

People make bigger boards (heightwise) for RCBOs, this extra height is offset by the fact you save 4 modules space without 2 RCBOs
Plenty of ways around this for critical circuits (smokes, fridge/freezer)
Not really an issue if the breaker resets straight away
I suspect it's not a TT install but I could be wrong.

I would say go RCBO all the way, and don't forget to have CAT6 everywhere you can imagine ever needing it, wired back to a common point

 

[JohnW2]

Downsides are: 1) Take up more room in the CU so can make wiring a pig.

True in terms of retrofit, but if one is installing a new CU, one can choose one which has plenty of space for RCBOs.

2) Less likely to notice one has tripped.

Other than in a few special situations (e.g. freezers & alarms), if one doesn't notice that a circuit has gone dead, it can't be a very important circuit. I like things like freezers and alarms to be fed from some circuit which does other 'obvious' things (and to have 'power failure' alarms), so that tripping is noticed. A theoretical option for a dedicated freezer circuit is to just give it an MCB (and no RCD protection), but that introduces all sorts of issues.

3) You don't know if they have tripped due to overload or earth leakage.

That is true, and can frustrate fault finding. I think that there are some fancy (aka expensive) ones which do indicate what has caused a trip. An electrician can always temporarily substitute an MCB to facilitate fault-finding.

4) That old argument on whether they are allowed on a TT supply / only isolate the line.

It's not so much of an issue with TT if all final circuits are RCBO-protected, since one then doesn't usually need an up-front RCD. With either TT or TN there is, of course, the possibility that an N-E fault not cleared by a SP RCBO may cause other RCBOs to operate - but I doubt that it would often cause all other RCBOs to trip, so probably not much worse than loosing half one's circuits when an RCD in a dual-RCD CU trips. Of course, if the OP has an 'unlimited' budget (and probably room for a large CU, unless he can find single-width ones), then he could use DP RCBOs.

Kind Regards, John