MK Fully populated with RCBO's (x15)

[plugit]

JohnW2

Thank you - quite right. It is done, with 19 numbered ways. Simple task as I produce these in Powerpoint and when finalised, print onto sticky-back film. I'll do that once my electrician agrees with the layout.

Really appreciate all the help on this forum including the earlier postings and images. At the risk of appearing OCD - I appreciated the pictures showing tidy work - it hints at someone who takes pride. In my case I'm just a sad old b****r who likes to keep electrical work neat and tidy. Oh, yes and when I'm not around, the delicate one can work out what's not working. You ought to see my socket layout... perhaps not!

Cheers

 

[JohnW2]

JohnW2 Thank you - quite right. It is done, with 19 numbered ways. Simple task as I produce these in Powerpoint and when finalised, print onto sticky-back film. I'll do that once my electrician agrees with the layout.

You're welcome. I have to say that, when I produce such labels, PowerPoint is probably the last application I would think of using - but if it works for you (and it clearly does), that's fine!!

If your electrician faults you for anything, it certainly won't be neatness.

Kind Regards, John

 

[Iggifer]

just that the cpc from circuit 4 is in hole #1 but that's easily fixed

 

[sparkwright]

Cable ties on the neutral and earth leads may help to make it tidy and neat, but to replace one of those RCBOs may be inconvenient, particularly when all the circuit wiring is in place.

 

[sparkwright]

The one circuit wired in - the wires seem a little short to me. Personally, I like to make them just long enough to reach the furthest RCBO space. That way, it's future proof. You can move things around in the consumer unit without any wires being too short.

 

[sparkwright]

What's all these 'spare' spaces for between some of the RCBOs?

All it does is mess up the sequence of the neutrals and earths.

As it is, you don't have enough spare holes in the neutral bars for the consumer unit to filled up with RCBOs.

Unless I am missing something, the spare ways should be at the righthand side of the consumer unit.

 

[plugit]

Thank you JohnW2.

Well spotted Iggifer, in my hurry to self congratulate for being tidy, I forgot to move along the earths(?) and neutrals to reflect JohnW2's suggestion. As you can see from the earlier pics I marked them to enable me to identify all 15 - and get them in order. JohnW2 I'm now out of sequence! Damn, the OCD is kicking in.

Can I presume it is good practice to align the neutral tails and Cpc's (is that what I call earth terminals?) to the layout of the MCB's / RCBO's. It makes sense to my untrained brain, but is there a rule of thumb or even guidance?

I'm probably in too deep - I can anticipate my electrician patting me on the head and saying - very pretty, now get back to your day time job. Lol.

Thanks again guys.

 

[sparkwright]

Thank you JohnW2.


Can I presume it is good practice to align the neutral tails and Cpc's (is that what I call earth terminals?) to the layout of the MCB's / RCBO's. It makes sense to my untrained brain, but is there a rule of thumb or even guidance?

The cpcs and neutrals have to be in the same layout as the RCBOs/MCBs.

 

[plugit]

sparkright, if you review the thread, you will see the suggestion was to create space for the actual wiring in what has become a rather over-busy CU with all RCBO's, which is why I originally asked for photo's showing how this has been done.

My naive, non-professional stance was that if MK made long neutral tails that was for a reason and they should be accomodated. The wisdom here and from Eaton (?) is cut them, but ferrule them. I had a go at keeping them.

Taking advice from here, I created space especially around the 'big cables' such as cooker and a planned 10mm SWA. However, as I re-ordered the RCBO's based on JohnW2's advice, at this stage I have not re-allocated the tails and my 'clever' little marks on the earths are now not so clever.

If you have advice or examples of best practice I'm all eyes and ears. This is not my profession, but the discussion has been helpful and informative.

In respect of the single circuit - I pushed a piece of unconnected 2.5mm up through a conduit in the base of the CU to see if it had room - it does, but whether 15 circuits will have, is an entirely different matter!

Thank you for taking the trouble to comment.

 

[JohnW2]

Taking advice from here, I created space especially around the 'big cables' such as cooker and a planned 10mm SWA. However, as I re-ordered the RCBO's based on JohnW2's advice, at this stage I have not re-allocated the tails and my 'clever' little marks on the earths are now not so clever.

I wasn't really sugegsting that you should re-order the RCBOs (particularly if, as seems to be the case, you had good reasons for putting the spaces/'spares' where you had). I was merely suggesting that you might want to consider re-numbering them (i.e. gave numbers, in sequemce, to all the spaces, including the 'spare' ones), in case the spares were used in the future.

Kind Regards, John

 

[SimonH2]

As it is, you don't have enough spare holes in the neutral bars for the consumer unit to filled up with RCBOs.

There is if he moves that link and makes the unconnected bar part of the neutral.

Unless I am missing something, the spare ways should be at the righthand side of the consumer unit.

That was something I said earlier.
In the flat, I purposely left a gap between the breakers for the flat and those for the "outside" (garage & outside lights). I gives more room to work in vs having everything bunched up at one end of the board, and it makes the breakers easier to identify (in the flat, the CU is rather high up, in a cupboard without a light).

Can I presume it is good practice to align the neutral tails and Cpc's (is that what I call earth terminals?) to the layout of the MCB's / RCBO's. It makes sense to my untrained brain, but is there a rule of thumb or even guidance?

Not sure whether it is "absolutely" required by the regs in this sort of installation, but even if not, to not match neutral and earth positions with the breaker positions would be very bad workmanship. The idea is that if you are working on a circuit, it's easy to identify the earth and neutral that go with it without having to tease around all the wiring to find them.

Having said that, one should never assume because there are too many <make your own expletives up> who don't give a damn about details like that. I once had a look in the CU in a mates workshop. He'd had a supply put in for his lift, and they'd stuck the extra breaker in at number 1 and moved everything else along one. But the idiots couldn't be ar*ed to move the neutrals and earths to match, or to alter the labelling either. BTW - they were supposedly qualified electricians from a supposedly reputable local company.

The only situation I know of where it is required to not put the earths in the same way in the earth bar is when wiring a high integrity earth on a ring final. For that, the two ends of the CPC should be under separate screws so that one termination coming loose can't completely remove the earthing. Then the tails should be properly labelled so it's clear what's what.

 

[JohnW2]

Not sure whether it is "absolutely" required by the regs in this sort of installation, but even if not, to not match neutral and earth positions with the breaker positions would be very bad workmanship. The idea is that if you are working on a circuit, it's easy to identify the earth and neutral that go with it without having to tease around all the wiring to find them. .... Having said that, one should never assume ....

It's certainly 'good workmanship' to do it properly (hence arguably required by the regs, although not explicitly mentioned), but the 'never assume' is the big catch. In the OP's CU, for example, it would be a nighmare to trace back one of those RCBO neutrals to confirm it was the right one - ironically in large part because of the neatness!

I personally always label every conductor/core in a CU (including identifying the two ends of ring finals), thereby considerably increasing confidence about 'what is what' - but, even then, one really ought to adopt a 'never assume' policy, which takes one almost back to square one.

Kind Regards, John