New Consumer Unit in garage

[Daz66]

A friend has purchased a property near Norwich and has asked me to change the consumer unit, I have passed the DISQ course and would like to do it for him, though the distance is a little off putting.

My problem is this, the consumer unit is in the garage with the meter and other CU for storage heater and hot air blower. All cabling goes through a conduit in the floor of the garage to the house and is distributed throughout the loft and chased down the walls to the socket outlets.

Can I leave the CU where it is or should it be moved as suggested by another electrician into the house which would involve new tails into the house passed through the conduit where all the cable currently pass.

I know he needs a split load board with room for additional bits to be added later, but should we also fit other CU's for garage supply, heaters etc.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[Chivers7]

http://www.theiet.org/forums/forum/ Ask here mate

 

[Daz66]

Why?

 

[EdwardCurrent]

Hello,
Is it an on/off peak supply ?

It could be annoying or awkward having to go out into the garage if you ever need to get access but I dont think it necessary to move it unless you really want to.

25mm meter tails and a 16mm earth down conduit doesn't sound good.

Do you know how long the new tails would be, and is this within the DNO's requirements in that area ?? ( 3m ?) .
Cheers
Ed

 

[Daz66]

I don't particularly think it needs moving, its just that the electrician mentioned it might be easier if there was a failure.

I'm not too sure about the metre being peak supply or not (he does intend fitting a boiler and rads in the future so off peak metering wont be necessary).

The tails would be around 10 meters from the existing location going down the conduit across to the house (about 1.5 metre away) up in side the house (still in conduit) and then round the loft to the new position about 5 metres (beside the front door)

Obviously all of the current cabling in the conduit would be pulled through to go to the new unit. The conduit is 20-30mm Dia.

On the plus side we can then re-distribute the circuits and add new without too much hassle in the loft, but its just pulling the tails through that worries me.

What about the PME is that Ok to be so far away from the service head.

The DNO didn't say to move it or leave it, they just said it was OK where it is.

If we use a multiple Henly block could we have another CU in the garage for the garage stuff?

 

[Adam_151]

I have a feeling your DNO isn't going to like that...

Switchfuse and SWA time and I'd leave the Eco 7 board alone for now if its going to be taken out soon

Use three core SWA and 'export' the TNC-S earth to the house (remember your bonding of services in the garage as well if there are any)