Reasonable cost for new consumer unit?

[Daryll]

I'm refurbing the bathroom and needed a sparky to wire in the whirlpool bath and aqualisa pumped shower unit.

Got a guy in and he said it would be no problem, fit an RCD and fused spur.... but... my consumer unit needed replacing too. (current one has the pop-out button cicuit breakers).

... so the cost went up from £100 to £600...

He's going to do the bathroom work (which he said would take about an hour or 2), fit new consumer unit, and new earth to the water supply, then a full test of the electrics.


Does this sound reasonable for £600 inc VAT..??

 

[ricicle]

Can you post some pictures of your current consumer unit. Sounds like it might be a Wylex with the little red test buttons for the MCBs ?

There should be no apparent reason to replace the unit unless there are no more spare ways for any new circuits.

£600 sounds reasonable for all the works but a proper CU change should take longer than 1 -2 hours as the rest of the installation should be inspected and tested as well.

Also check that your Electrician is on the competant persons register !

 

[MalcofArabia]

If he is going to fit the new Unit and do the Bathroom YES

If he is supplying all material YES

If he is going to do all the Testing and then
Notify the LABC or his scheme YES

If he is going to upgrade all you existing bonding
If it doesn't meet the new Regs YES

It may very well be perhaps a day or a day and half work their. Changing the CU is worth the 600 pounds alone as it can be a minefield.

Some sparks start at 500 for a board change and bonding and work up from there

 

[Daryll]

OK, heres the current box, yes ricicle its a Wylex with red buttons.

Untitled

• Daryll
• 25 Aug 2010
• 1

He said the bathroom work would take 1-2 hrs, the new consumer unit would mean it went to a days work.

We currently have a 9.5 Kw electric shower which will be superceded by the 250W Aqualisa and 750W whirlpool bath, so a (more than) suitable cable is already in situ...


But it sounds like its a reasonable price.....

 

[MalcofArabia]

Did he say he was fitting the pump and bath onto the existing shower supply ???

Can we assume that if he is the pump for the shower and the whirlpool will have 2 different connection points? or are they a combined unit

A bit suprised he would consider using the existing 6mm or 10mm to supply just a 1kw load. nothing really wrong in that just suprised. You may have decided with him to utilise this cable rather than running a new

 

[Daryll]

Yes Malc, as the existing cable already runs from the consumer unit up into the bathroom, and it will become redundant, we agreed that he should use that for the bath and shower.

I think hes going to feed it into a main isolator, then split it into 2 feeds, one each for the bath and shower, I think with a fused spur to each.

 

[MalcofArabia]

Is the pump going to be under the bath them?

If it is you will need to make sure it can only be accessed by use of a tool.

 

[Daryll]

Yes, under the bath, and the bath panel will be secured by screws.

 

[ricicle]

Your 9.5kW shower was on one of the 30A MCBs with no RCD ?

I personally see no reason to change the CU - he can just fit an RCD in line with the old shower feed ideally at the mains.

 

[MalcofArabia]

Or he could use these little babies just given on this forum


http://www.greenbrook.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=M92W

 

[Daryll]

Your 9.5kW shower was on one of the 30A MCBs with no RCD ?

I personally see no reason to change the CU - he can just fit an RCD in line with the old shower feed ideally at the mains.

I did wonder about the need for a whole new unit, and whether he could just protect the bathroom with an RCD.

He did ring his boss, (conveniently while I was in earshot?) asking about if he did the bathroom work, would he just have to test that, or the whole house circuit, which his boss obviously said the whole house... and so it would fail because there were no RCDs in the house. and so the new CU.

Although its maybe un-necessary to have a new CU, surely it must be a good thing...? (he says, trying to justify the expense to himself....)

 

[ban-all-sheds]

There is the point that an RCD FCU in the bathroom will not do anything for a L/E fault upstream of it, which could raise the potential of the cpc in the bathroom until cleared by the circuit MCB.

 

[ricicle]

There is the point that an RCD FCU in the bathroom will not do anything for a L/E fault upstream of it, which could raise the potential of the cpc in the bathroom until cleared by the circuit MCB.

he can just fit an RCD in line with the old shower feed ideally at the mains

 

[electronicsuk]

There is the point that an RCD FCU in the bathroom will not do anything for a L/E fault upstream of it, which could raise the potential of the cpc in the bathroom until cleared by the circuit MCB.

There would certainly still be a case for supplementary bonding, but as long as that's in place, there should be no great risk in having the RCD FCU local to the bathroom. In fact, I'm sure a remember a topic a few weeks ago concerning a similar issue, and whether or not the entire circuit or just the bathroom portion of it should be protected. Can't remember the outcome, mind.