Moving a consumer unit

[Whitling2k]

Hi there!

I am hoping to get an electrician to come and move our consumer unit. It's currently installed on the same wooden board as the meter and the other supplier gubbins - which has some woodworm and a faulty meter.

The distributors are coming to replace the meter - and if I can get the CU moved - replace the board too.

It's not an ancient CU (mid-late 90s) and access is all a piece of cake (stripped all wooden stud walls out due to said woodworm!)

The wiring is mostly from the same period - although there are maybe 4 sockets throughout the house that may be originals (late 70s)

Firstly - what's the chances of this being a straight forward job? What kind of things can go wrong? (i.e. put the costs up!)

secondly - what kind of ball park figure am I looking at to move the CU (by less than 0.5m)? we talking sub £100, £100-200, more?

Thanks in advance

Whitling2k

 

[RF Lighting]

You'll require a new CU, as a unit from the 90's will not comply with current regs, and can not be re-installed.

Also you will need to confirm if main bonding is installed in the property. If not, this MUST be done at the same time.

As to how hard the move is, well it depends if the cables will pull back long enough to the new position with enough length to re-terminate them, or if they will need replacing / jointing and extending.

Without seeing the job, assuming there's no major complications, I'd guess you're looking somewhere around the £500 mark.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

First thing to do is have an electrical installation condition report (EICR) done on you installation. This will inform you of any issues and whether your system is suitable for a board swap or whether remedial work is required prior to swap. Once you have had the EICR, then you can start talking about ball park figures.

 

[Whitling2k]

Okay thanks - it's good to know that. I guess I really wanted to be pre-armed with some knowledge. If a random guy started telling me it's £500 to move a grey box half a metre I would have passed out!


It's great to know what to expect!

Whitling2k

 

[Whitling2k]

PS I heart Yorkshire too!!

 

[Taylortwocities]

The issue with moving it is that all of the cables from the house will come to the current position.

When you change the location,

• some of the cables may be long enough (that's OK),
  some may be too short (that's more of a problem, as they'll have to be extended, and the connection may not be so easy, if there's a lot of them)
  any re-routed concealed cables will have to be run in safe zones (see the WIKI)
  some cables may be so buried in the house structure (in cavities, e.g.) that getting at them can be a PITA

So the cost will vary depending on all of those factors.

The last one I did., like that, had 3 original fuse boards, two under the stairs and one half way up a wall. The new consumer unit needed to go high up above where a new door was to be located. It was 3 days for me, a day for the plasterer to make good the walls and half a day for the carpenter to put back the nice polished wood flooring that had to come up.