How far from the ring can an FCU be

[JohnW2]

You need an EICR (electrical installation condition report) ...

I wonder why you say that? There must be millions of domestic installations that have not had an EICR/PIR for very many years/decades (if ever) and, undesirable though it may be, that remains an ongoing possibility with owner-occupied property in England.

 

[robinbanks]

I think Eric said "need" in the same sense Murdochat said "mandatory"

 

[JohnW2]

I think Eric said "need" in the same sense Murdochat said "mandatory"

Yes, maybe - but I think it's actually 'worse' (more potentially misleading) in the case of eric's statement.

In the case of Murdo, I thought it appropriate to point out (for the benefit of other readers) that, strictly speaking, having RCDs is actually not literally "mandatory"- but I am sure that the vast number of people would regard it as 'fairly unacceptable' today to have an electrical installation with no RCD protection (and I presuming that such installations are gradually disappearing) - such that many people (like flameport) would describe it as 'effectively mandatory'.

However, in contrast, as I've just written, there must be millions of installations that have not had an EICR for a very long time, if ever, and not many people are losing sleep over that. I therefore think that eric's statement is a lot more potentially misleading (to 'those who don'y know') than was Murdo''s!

 

[ericmark]

I agree that many people have not done an EICR, but I remember my parent's house, and the problem due to all the bits my dad had added when an electrician tried to add a new consumer unit the RCD was tripping, back then, there was no requirement to have RCD protection, pre-2008. So he replaced the RCD with an isolator. If the same happened today, not sure if an electrician could replace a RCD with an isolator, and issue a compliance certificate, so need to know any problems before starting.

strictly speaking, having RCDs is actually not literally "mandatory"

I agree with that, however to replace a fuse box with a consumer unit, you need either a compliance or completion certificate, clearly it would not comply, the question therefore is would a LABC issue a completion certificate? I agree with what he said.

We have a couple of portable RCDs for the risky jobs (lawn mower, power tools) but a whole house RCD has disadvantages (FiL had one) so RCDs can wait for the new CU.

There are other ways around the safety issue, and the last thing anyone wants is to be landed with RCD tripping problems. Or any other unexpected problems like finding you have spurs from spurs etc.

 

[JohnW2]

I agree with that, however to replace a fuse box with a consumer unit, you need either a compliance or completion certificate, clearly it would not comply, the question therefore is would a LABC issue a completion certificate? I agree with what he said.

Sure, but I can't believe that anyone in their right mind would today even dream of replacing a fuse box with a CU which contained no RCDs (RCCBs or RCBOs). It would be notifiable work and, as you say, there is surely no way that one can (or should!) be able to get a compliance or completion certificate for something so obviously non-compliant with BS7671 - so there presumably would be no way of (legally, since notification is a legal requirement) replacing the fuse box without providing RCD protection?

The (my implied) point was that so long as the current fuse box is not replaced, no law is being broken by the absence of RCD protection, and I would say that that would remain the case no matter how much non-notifiable work was done on the installation?.