Old wiring and fuses before consumer unit

[iwilson16]

Looking for some thoughts and advice on a mess of old wires and stuff (need to find out names as well!)

Its an old Edinburgh Victorian town house thats been split into two flats in the 1950's. I own the upper flat. The photo 1 shown below shows the wiring in the shared entrance hall cupboard.

The supply comes in the bottom left into a large black box. The thicker red-black wires coming out of the top go into a copper conduit, then off the the bottom left to the CU for the lower flat.

The left black box feeds an old mechanical timer switch for the communal lights. It is unmetered!

The middle black box has two smaller red-black wires feeding the white meter for the upper flat (my flat). (I think this meter was fitted by a previous owner in 2009). From the meter and small black box to its right, the supply goes to two switch thingys (name?).

The one marked cooker seems to be unused. Its turned off, and there is no current running through the grey wire. I assume the larger switch to the bottom right is what feeds my consumer unit?

Photo 1

• iwilson16
• 1 Dec 2017

Its an old Edinburgh Victorian town house thats been split into 2 flats in the 1950's. The...

My flat was rewired a few years ago before I moved in. I suspect they stopped using the dedicated cooker wire at that point, since a modern CU with RCBs etc was installed. Is that a reasonable assumption?

I have the floor up in the room above here for a bathroom renovation, and it would be good to remove this unused cooker cable if possible .... ?

My main query is how do I get this all modernised and tidied up? Can I get a qualified electrician to do it? Or do I need to get the power company to do it? (currently EDF).

If the latter, then how do I describe this mess to them such that they will listen, and regard it as worth doing?

The unmetered stair lights was a bit of a surprise. In Edinburgh I had thought the communal stair lights of old flats was feed via the street light supply. And new flats have a meter, which a factor looks after.

I'll link some close-up photos below.

Thanks
Ian

Photo 2

• iwilson16
• 1 Dec 2017

My flat (upper floor) is fed by the smaller red-black wires, that feed into the white meter...

Photo 3

• iwilson16
• 1 Dec 2017

Photo 4

• iwilson16
• 1 Dec 2017

Photo 5

• iwilson16
• 1 Dec 2017

Photo 6 - old mechanical stair light timer

• iwilson16
• 1 Dec 2017

This is fed directly from pre-metered supply!

Photo 7

• iwilson16
• 1 Dec 2017

A more modern meter was fitted in approx 2009 by a previous owner.

Photo 8

• iwilson16
• 1 Dec 2017

The supply comes in from the street at the bottom. The larger, RH black box supplies the GF...

 

[ericmark]

The old bill isolator is marked 60 amp, as to what size the fuse is we will not know as sealed, but I would guess this was why the cooker had a separate supply? Can't remember if the Bill isolator is fused or not, been a long time since I have seen one, the copper conduit as you call it, I think is mineral insulated cable, what seems to be missing is an earth going to that cable, so it does seem as if some work is required, but hard to be sure without testing, and since you say that feeds some one else's flat and it is before the meter then not your worry.

I have lived in a caravan with all heating, and sockets supplied from a 16A supply so it is possible a flat only needs a 60A supply, however it is really not something one can say without looking around what you have, so your question seems to be can you remove the cooker supply, and the answer is dependent on the load so can't really answer the question.

If it were me I would leave well alone, as you say it seems the flat has some free lighting power, it may be the supplier has agreed a fixed rate since all on a time clock, but I would not want to upset the apple barrel and would leave well alone.

 

[Echo the husky]

I too would leave well alone as it is about as modern as it's likely to get, you could replace the 2 old switchfuses with 2 new ones but this would be pointless unless they are faulty/damaged as the old ones are likely to be higher quality than anything modern. As above the communal lighting will likely be charged a set rate. The rest of the equipment is property of the electricity distributor/supplier and must not be tampered with.