Thank you all for your help. I will advise my son to tell the builder that he doesn't want a new consumer unit but a type A RCD can be fitted into the existing consumer unit.
Replacement consumer unit necessary?
- Thread starter pcaouolte
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When it was installed. The house is privately owned, not rented. I don't think that many private owners bother with electrical testing except when work is being done.
It will be interesting to see what the builder says when he is told that the new consumer unit isn't wanted. My son won't mention the RCD type, he will wait to see if the builder/his electrician mentions it.
Although I cannot change the consumer unit without getting building control involved, I suppose that there is nothing to stop me changing the RCDs in the existing consumer unit? I have access to test equipment and know how to use it. I've done lots of industrial electrics in the past as an electrician's mate but no domestic electrics outside my own home. There is an isolator between the meter and the CU so I wouldn't need to interfere with the DNO cut out.
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We might have to do that. It is convenient for the builder to do all of the work in a co-ordinated way as my son has only one bathroom and toilet. Will wait to see what the response is to not having a new CU.
What is or isn’t plugged in isn’t the sparks issue.
Not necessarily true. It should be reasonable expected that socket-outlets will be used to plug in appliances surely?
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We were told around 2004 that any socket likely to be used outside should be RCD protected, so yes the spark should look at what is likely to be used.
I do have a metal consumer unit, however my isolator is in a plastic box, and my meter is plastic and the DNO fuse carrier is plastic, so really no point.
I have seen the problem, a consumer unit was ordered together with the overload devices and for convenience the lad at the whole sale outlet slotted the MCB's into the box, however the electrician who picked up the box, thought it was a ready populated box, he should if following instructions have tested all connections for tightness, but he only torqued up the connections he had made.
Lucky this caused the phones to play up, so was found before any heavy load was put on the circuits, but it could have caused a fire.
However had all the MCB's been in a faraday cage of a metal consumed unit, then it may not have upset the phones, so could have caused a fire.
But it is like when there is a motor accident due to some one doing 60 MPH in a 30 limit, lowering the limit to 20 MPH. It cures nothing.
I do have a metal consumer unit, however my isolator is in a plastic box, and my meter is plastic and the DNO fuse carrier is plastic, so really no point.
I have seen the problem, a consumer unit was ordered together with the overload devices and for convenience the lad at the whole sale outlet slotted the MCB's into the box, however the electrician who picked up the box, thought it was a ready populated box, he should if following instructions have tested all connections for tightness, but he only torqued up the connections he had made.
Lucky this caused the phones to play up, so was found before any heavy load was put on the circuits, but it could have caused a fire.
However had all the MCB's been in a faraday cage of a metal consumed unit, then it may not have upset the phones, so could have caused a fire.
But it is like when there is a motor accident due to some one doing 60 MPH in a 30 limit, lowering the limit to 20 MPH. It cures nothing.
No reason for that, BS7671 110.1.2 (vii) is perfectly clear.
There is no interpretation.
Additions and alterations to circuits need to comply with BS7671. That includes protective devices for the circuit.
if the RCD is the wrong type, it is changed. Just as if an MCB was the wrong rating, it would be changed. Or if a rusty nail had been used instead of the appropriate fuse, that would be changed.
No.
An enclosure serves the same function whether it is plastic or metal.
If parts are available for it, and it's in good condition, an additional circuit can be added.
With that flawed logic everyone would still be using live front switchboards and rewireable fuses.
The difference between Type AC and Type A is not due to 'DC leakage'.
Type A will operate with non-sinusoidal current, which is what the majority of electrical equipment in use today creates.
Type AC were designed for sinusoidal current waveforms. Their operation with other waveforms is undefined and mostly unknown.
For circuits that do have a possibility of DC current or higher frequencies, other types of RCD will be required.
And then there is the thorny issue of so many sparks unable to actually test type A RCDs
How would they be unsure of how to test them?
because their test kit hasn’t got the ability to test them properly
Their test equipment doesn't have an AC RCD test facility?
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