Am I correct in thinking that I have to call in the electrical board to do this.
Yes, you are correct.
Get a quote from them before you do too much more working out budgets for the rest of it.
Also there does not seem to be consumer unit. The meter runs to a grey metal box with 4 cables coming out.
There will be 4 rewirable fuses inside that box.
And possibly asbestos?
I assume a consumer unit will need to be fitted when the meter is moved so I am not sure how these 4 cables will be fitted to a modern CU with RCD etc.
The CU will replace the existing fusebox.
Will the whole house need rewiring to achieve this. Thanks
Possibly - it would depends on what the electrician finds, but since remedial work would probably be extensive and you probably want all sorts of new circuits and sockets etc, I'd say don't bother having the old stuff inspected, just start getting quotes for a rewire.
Are you living in the house yet? An empty property, devoid of furnishings to worry about etc is cheaper to rewire, but in any event now is the time to have a rewire done, not after you've plastered, papered, painted and put down flooring.
Think hard about where to have sockets - it's difficult to have too many, and also about what circuits to have. The items on the list below won't all apply to you, but they are worth thinking about:
- Upstairs sockets
- Downstairs sockets
- Kitchen sockets
- Circuit for appliances
- Cooker circuit
- Non-RCD circuit for F/F
- Non-RCD circuit for CH boiler
- Dedicated circuit for hifi
- Dedicated circuit for IT equipment
- Upstairs lights
- Downstairs lights
- Lighting circuits with switches in the usual places but with 2A/5A round pin sockets at low level.
- Immersion heater
- Loft lights
- Shower
- Bathroom circuit
- Alarms
- Supply for outside lights
- Supply for garden electrics
- Supply for shed/garage
Plus any peculiarities brought about by your house layout & construction - e.g. in mine because of solid floors and where the socket circuits run, I have a radial just for a socket in the hall, the doorbell and the porch lights.
Unless you want to go to the expense of RCBOs throughout, the CU should have at least 3 sections, 2 on RCDs and one not into which you can install a mix of RCBOs and MCBs.
It can be a good idea to put all wiring in conduit for ease of future changes. And if you specify metal conduit for switch drops, or BS 8436 cable it removes the need to have RCDs where you'd rather not.
If you live somewhere where supplies are dodgy in the winter, have the lights, the boiler supply, and a socket in each room wired to a separate CU, or a separate section in a large one, that can be supplied by an emergency generator - lights, heating, TV and a kettle/microwave make life a lot more bearable.
Flood-wiring with
Cat6 or Cat6a cable is worth thinking about.
As ever, personal recommendations are always the best way to find a reputable tradesman, but if you're having to go ahead without much in the way of those, or references, don't put any store by registration itself - sadly it is possible to become registered with woefully inadequate qualifications and zero practical experience. You don't have to spend long here to see people cropping up who are registered and "qualified", but who are clearly seriously incompetent in reality and who should not be charging for their services.
You are looking for someone to rewire a house, and it may surprise and dismay you to learn that it is quite possible to become a "certified electrician" without ever having done that before, and without having acquired any of the practical skills needed to do it without half-destroying your house in the process.
It's your money, £'000s of it, and you have every right to ask prospective tradesmen what their qualifications and experience are.
Just being listed here is not a good enough guide. No genuinely experienced electrician, with the "full set" of C&G qualifications will mind you asking - in fact he will wish that everyone was like you.
