Replacing old CU with New ??

[diywhynot]

As I want to replace my old Consumer Unit with a New Unit with an RCD.

Would this give protection from shocks as a RCCD would, or would the indivual circuits need a RCCD, ie Ring Mains, Cooker and Shower.

Under the new law would I be able to do this as I am not laying a new circuit, only replacing a part??

 

[Agile]

Based on my understanding, which if wrong will be corrected by others here:-

Any protection device which trips at 30 Ma or less is likely to trip before a "shock" becomes fatal, but the person will still feel a shock!

Replacing the CU requires a suitable qualified person and has to be notified to Building Control ( OR you can do it and call Building Control to inspect it before you power it! In practice BC dont have suitably qualified staff to inspect yet. )

Connecting the new CU tails to the sealed meter needs to be done by the electricity supplier ( at a charge ) and they will not do this unless you have a Certificate for the new installation ( or they inspect and Certify it for you at a further charge )

All in all I would not recommend this as a DIY job. Furthermore ensure anyone you engage is suitably qualified and can Certify the work and notify BC under one of the schemes. The best known scheme is operated by the NICEIC

Tony Glazier

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Replacing the CU requires a suitable qualified person and has to be notified to Building Control ( OR you can do it and call Building Control to inspect it before you power it! In practice BC dont have suitably qualified staff to inspect yet. )

No - it must be notified to BC before you start any of the work. Interestingly, however, although the law itself gives a pretty good indication that this is notifiable work (but not an explicit one) if you were to go by the guidance on the ODPM website, which would be a pretty good defence if you ever got caught, there it says:

You do not need to tell
your local authority’s
Building Control Department
about:

repairs, replacements and
maintenance work; or

extra power points or lighting
points or other alterations to
existing circuits (except in a
kitchen or bathroom, or
outdoors).

So as long as the CU isn't in the kitchen or bathroom, replacing it, they say, is not notifiable...

Connecting the new CU tails to the sealed meter needs to be done by the electricity supplier ( at a charge ) and they will not do this unless you have a Certificate for the new installation ( or they inspect and Certify it for you at a further charge )

So leave their old tails in place, and don't involve them.

All in all I would not recommend this as a DIY job.

Unless there's an isolation switch, the service fuse needs to be pulled, which is not something that people should be advised to do. But apart from that, the simple act of replacing a CU is not very difficult. However, after the service fuse issue, the biggest hurdle is that if you are going to do it properly you should test all of the circuits before connecting them, and not many DIYers have access to the test equipment needed. The argument that the circuits will be in as good a shape as they were before is certainly true, but testing is what is required if you want to work to BS7671. Also, if you're adding an RCD where there wasn't one before it might be nice to have advance notice of potential earth faults...

Furthermore ensure anyone you engage is suitably qualified and can Certify the work and notify BC under one of the schemes. The best known scheme is operated by the NICEIC

FFS will you stop this NICEIC propaganda!

diywhynot - if you want to use a certified electrician, find a NAPIT member.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Would this give protection from shocks as a RCCD would, or would the indivual circuits need a RCCD, ie Ring Mains, Cooker and Shower.

What's an RCCD? What do you think it does?

 

[diywhynot]

Ban-all-sheds wrote:-

What's an RCCD? What do you think it does?



Are you trying to be clever or what??

 

[ban-all-sheds]

No - I'm trying to get you to concentrate, and think, and learn...

 

[diywhynot]

Ok

RCD = Residual current device

RCCD = Residual current circuit breaker


So would it be better to have one of the above as the incoming protection or have a Isolator with individual protection circuits.

Please

 

[crichtons]

Very intresting discussion, I hope to get some info helping my situation too. I am a high voltage electrical engineer , I am not an electrician or part P registered, but am familiar with 16th edition.

I moved into a new house and the consumer unit needed changing (old fuse unit for a new RCD etc), the electrician I contacted (NECEIC registered) said I could replace it and he would be able to certify it. Well after all my work he said that he didn't realise but he can only certify his own work.

So I tested the installation myself and am electrically happy it meets the BS standards, however I have no proof of this. Do I contact the building regs and tell them the situation? As the installer I have broken part P of the regs! Keep quiet? Get some other electrician in and deny all blame.

Any suggestions, I am unsure where to turn since the Part P legislation

 

[BenStiller]

Just keep quite about it, if your happy with it dont lose any sleep over it

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Ok

RCD = Residual current device

RCCD = Residual current circuit breaker

It does help to pay more attention to what you're writing, and wonder how the letter D can stand for "breaker"..

Anyway - RCDs and RCCBs are one and the same thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCCB

So would it be better to have one of the above as the incoming protection or have a Isolator with individual protection circuits.

It would be utter madness to fit an RCD per circuit. If you want protection at the individual circuit level, fit RCBOs rather than an MCB and an RCD per circuit.

An isolator and RCBOs is always a better solution as it increases fault discrimination and decreases inconvenience.

It also increases costs considerably.

 

[crichtons]

Thanks "benstiller", I'll take your advice and pertend it never happened alternatively I may put the old fuse box back and pretend it really never happened. My next electrian will really have to show his worth no matter what institute he is registered with.

 

[pdcelec]

Surely you installed your new CU in December 2004 and your certificate shows this!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I'll take your advice and pertend it never happened

By far and away the best approach. What's done is done.

alternatively I may put the old fuse box back and pretend it really never happened.

That would be two illegal acts for zero-gain. Let it lie.

 

[Agile]

Dont know who Crichtons works for but would have thought any HV engineer probably is with a REC anyway.

Not totally relevant now perhaps but a colleague of mine about 11 years ago replaced his CU and wrote out a Certificate with his name followed by his qualifications, CEng, MIEE, and SWEB reconnected the tails without question!

As far as not replacing the tails are concerned, if they are not double insulated and only about 7 mm and old fabric insulated then surely that is a potential dangerous situation?

Whats wrong with the NICEIC apart from being expensive?

Tony Glazier

 

[mapj1]

A policy of only requiring one competent person and any number of knuckle draggers per company for a start, and the same fees for registration of all companies regardless of size.

This rather biases membership in favour of larger 'paid by the fitting, so hammer the screws in' contractor type operations, and against the time served one man band who has some pride in his quality of work - I'm not saying all NIC companies are like this, I'm sure there are some very good ones, but I've also seen some really dreadful work done under the NIC banner. Rather like the washing machine man I only see the broken ones, so that colours my judgement rather, you will need to allow for that, and it may be a local effect of one or two bad apples.