old cable new consumer unit

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Hiya fellas
Just bought a house and need a report on electrics for retention.

No earth bonding and old wired cu with no rcd. I think this is why it was pulled up and retention held.

Can't afford a full rewire till got money back off retention 25k. Ridiculous.

Before getting a report I was going to get a new 17th edition cu put in but I've found that all the existing cable to cu is steel core. Although red n black insulated and grey outer sheathing and in excellent condition is this ok for time being.
Can't afford a rewire till get retention money but it will need doing as lots of surface mounted sockets and switches.

Also I have picked up a 10 way 100 amp cu that was on offer for 40 quid in bandq with 25mm tails. Far to many for a bungalow and the main fuse is only 60 amp. Will I need to get eleccy company out to upgrade or downgrade tails to 15mm.

Any one help?
Cheers.
 
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Hiya fellas
Just bought a house and need a report on electrics for retention.

No earth bonding and old wired cu with no rcd. I think this is why it was pulled up and retention held.
Is this the house you were fitting a new electric oven to a few weeks ago?

Can't afford a full rewire till got money back off retention 25k. Ridiculous.
Whats retention - sounds painful and expensive?

Before getting a report I was going to get a new 17th edition cu put in but I've found that all the existing cable to cu is steel core. Although red n black insulated and grey outer sheathing and in excellent condition is this ok for time being.
Can't afford a rewire till get retention money but it will need doing as lots of surface mounted sockets and switches.
You don't fit a new cu until you have had an Electrical Installation Condition Report completed.

Also I have picked up a 10 way 100 amp cu that was on offer for 40 quid in bandq with 25mm tails. Far to many for a bungalow and the main fuse is only 60 amp. Will I need to get eleccy company out to upgrade or downgrade tails to 15mm. Cheers.
You have responsibility for the tails from the meter to the consumer unit and they should be 25mm2.
 
I've never heard of steel cable being used for electrics.

Most likely it's tinned copper (which is fine).However it could also be aluminium which needs special practices to terminate safely and is really not reccomended for domestic wiring.

Try seeing if you can scrape the surface off one of the wires and see if there is copper underneath.

If the main fuse is only 60A you should be ok with your existing tails but you might want to change them anyway.

Be aware that fitting a new CU is notifiable work under part P. Also regs arguments asside you REALLY want to get an old install checked out before adding RCDs if only for the sake of your own sanity.
 
Please get an electrician in. Installing consumer units is not a job for someone with little or no electrical knowledge. This is for the safety of you, your family, your tenants or future occupiers.
 
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Cheers.
The retention means the morgtage co will only release 75% of loan until they have recieved all reports and any work reqired done. I have to stump up the other 25% till then so I can start work. This was the norm 20 years ago for older houses and they have started doing it again. SO I need a report saying leccy is fine. Clearly the old cu should be on antiques roadshow and has no rcd or bonding to gas water. Has a leccyt shower as well.

Once I get the money I can get my sparks to rewire it but he's busy and in my opinion if a tradesman can start in a few days he ain't much cop. He can fit the cu in at night.
Checked the cable and it does have a copper look on the ends so I guess its tinned. How long ago was that.

No its not same house I needed the cooker doing.
 
An electrician doing a cu change at night in winter months under a touch sure is going to have fun.

At you know the retention will require an EIC to confirm the wiring is all good and the system to standard. So you have a choice.

Choice 1

Pay for a condition report and update the issues that raises

Choice 2

Pay for a condition report, and get a contractor to update everything to 17th ed. This might be a cu change, bonding and a few tweaks or it could be a whole install.

Cheapest option would be number 1 which doesn't have to be a 17th ed standard, it could be the 14th / 15th or 16th and the system simply being safe to the standard it is.

I would be absolutely jaw slapped if the retention specifically states that the wiring must be brought up to 17th, it is more likely that the wiring and system must be tested and confirmed as safe.
 
Also I have picked up a 10 way 100 amp cu that was on offer for 40 quid in bandq with 25mm tails. Far to many for a bungalow and the main fuse is only 60 amp.

I suggest you save yourself £40 and take it back.

It may not be suitable or compliant with current regulations. How do you know what you'll need?

When the customer has supplied the consumer unit for - jobs that i have done - there are always, always issues, or problems or the stuff isnt suitable. It has always cost the customer more than they would ever save due to additional time sorting it out or trawling round B&Q sheds tryimng to find the sapre parts for that cheap CU that they have just discontinued.....

Decent sparks have their preferred make(s) of CU and keep spares and additional MCBs. It isnt worth it.
 
No earth bonding
You can fix that yourself - cost less than a tenner.

and old wired cu
Still compliant with the latest version of the Wiring Regulations, still manufactured and sold.


with no rcd.
Not compliant with the latest version of the Wiring Regs, but there is no requirement to bring old installations up to date.


I think this is why it was pulled up and retention held.
Don't tell me - the lender's surveyor said something in his report about the electrics appearing to be yada yada yada, and that an electrician be engaged to inspect them and the recommendations of his report be adhered to.


Can't afford a full rewire till got money back off retention 25k. Ridiculous.
That is TTP. Is it only the electrics which need attention? Your solicitor really should have been able to negotiate a better deal than that.


Can't afford a rewire till get retention money but it will need doing as lots of surface mounted sockets and switches.
A rewire would be a very good thing to do, preferably before you start decorating, replacing carpets, putting in new bathroom, kitchen etc.


Also I have picked up a 10 way 100 amp cu that was on offer for 40 quid in bandq with 25mm tails. Far to many for a bungalow and the main fuse is only 60 amp. Will I need to get eleccy company out to upgrade or downgrade tails to 15mm.
You can't put that in yourself.

Get your £40 back, and get an electrician to do an EICR (used to be called a PIR).
 
no need to take it back its split load with 2 rcd's so i assume this is 17th edition. Make is BG.
Bnq damaged box in the trade point so im not going to get a better deal.
Not solicitors fault on the retention. Nothing to do with them. My lender will not give me all my loan unless i satisfy their demands. The idea being that they believe the property is not worth the money I need to borrow until the work is done. Standard stuff this nothing unusual except the ridiculous amount they are retaining. Trust me getting a morgtage these days is a nightmare.

I thought i would re-wire as a lot of the sockets and cabling have been roughed in by surface mounting. Only one circuit for the ring main which the garage is connected too. 1 for the lights and the shower is on a seperate single cu unit. But mainly no RCD. It would have cost more to get a stand alone RCD.
 
But mainly no RCD. It would have cost more to get a stand alone RCD.
You wouldn't have needed one to get an EICR saying that all was well.

Anyway - you've got the CU now, so if you are decided on that route you need an electrician.
 
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 "registered 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.

I feel sorry for people who have been misled by training organisations and (shamefully) the Competent Person scheme organisers into thinking that a 5-day training course, a couple of trivial examples of their work and some basic understanding of how to use test equipment will make them an electrician, but not sorry enough to agree with them trying to sell their services to Joe Public.
 

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