Earth - Meter to Consumer Unit

[dt100]

Hi - in a rush to finish first fixing a house re-wire I didn't have any 16mm earth to run between consumer unit and meter, and I put in 2 x 10mm cables.

Now worried if this was ok or not.... and as I'm having the area plastered tomorrow should I be pulling down plasterboard to install the correct 16mm cable first?

Any confirmation appreciated.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I'm not aware of any regulation which says you can't have parallel cables, but I'm concerned that you are plastering over the cables that run from the meter to the CU....

 

[dt100]

Thank-you for the reply.

The meter will be directly below the consumer unit.... around 1.5m (ie the meter is on the floor, and I am looking at putting the consumer unit at eye height). Thye walls are all battoned and platerboarded - is there an issue with running the cables vertically from the meter in the void behind the plasterboard?

 

[kai]

It is perfectly safe to run cables Vertically or Horizontally between a Meter and Consumer unit, as per the Wiring Regulations BS7671/2008 (17th).

 

[ColJack]

please don't quote regulations that haven't even been published yet..

we work to the 16th edition : 2004.

you don't even know for certain if the next version of regulations say that, it might not due to the proposed changes to the RCD requirements of cables installed less than 50mm deep...

 

[RF Lighting]

Isn't that only if they are run outside of the approved safe zones?

Who knows? We'll have to wait and see


As for the OP, running two earths in parralell certainly is a non standard installation, and I would prefer to see it replaced with a single piece of 16.0mm²

 

[nozspark]

If you are worried and don't want to damage any of the plaster, why don't you run some oval from the meter to the CU before plastering!!