All advice gratefully recieved, C/U Change

Barker · Feb 23, 2009

Hello everyone,

I have just registered with the NICEIC to get onto the Domestic Installers Scheme, one of the jobs that I am doing for my assesment is a consumer Unit change in my own house.

The question is will I have to upgrade the metre tails to 25mm and the Shower supply which is currently 6mm up to 10mm, or as they are exsisting can they be left as long as they are in good condition.

As I say "all advice gratefully recieved"

Cheers.

Scott F · Feb 23, 2009

Upgrade the tails to 25mm .the cable for the shower is determined by its current carrying capacity and hence also the power of said shower 7.5kw or 9.5kw etc.So you need to find the watts of shower then using ohms law decide if your cable is adaquate .Get swotting as these are the sort of things you really need to know to convey competence to the assessor

jools p · Feb 25, 2009

I just had my elecsa assessment on my own c/u and the guy said I would have to upgrade my tails to 25mm.

However if the fuse is 80amp the 16mm would of been ok. But of course you cannot tell unless you pull the fuse, He said he could not condone pulling the fuse.

It was already pulled and it was a 100amp.

By the way Elecsa will not finish the process of joining them until they have received proof that you have dealt with the non conformity. NIC will be the same I expect

The stupid thing about this is that on the other side of the meter the tails are 16mm but nobody cares about that of course.

Gordon · Feb 25, 2009

It's unusual to see tails bigger than 16mm on the suppliers side & they don't upgrade 'em when they put a new meter in. Are the supply companies exempt from BS7671?

ian.settle1 · Feb 25, 2009

Gordon said:
It's unusual to see tails bigger than 16mm on the suppliers side & they don't upgrade 'em when they put a new meter in. Are the supply companies exempt from BS7671?

Basically YES

kduck · Feb 25, 2009

Did you inform building control first before your cu change, going to do my first assessment in the coming weeks not sure where the land lies with this.

Barker · Feb 25, 2009

I did inform building control first, so £60 poorer now.

I have upgraded the meter tails to 25mm they were a bit of a bugger to pull through

but I got there in the end, it would have been easier with two people.

Now just tidying up and finishing of the little annoying bits then I should be all ready for the Assesor, Bring it on.

Oh yeah and fingers tightly crossed.

kung · Feb 25, 2009

Good luck ! £60 is cheaper than Wokingham charged they were £125 for a cu upgrade the robbing people

and that was after seeing my quals and design criterea. otherwise they wanted £475.00

sivoodoo · Feb 25, 2009

Hi Barker,

Did the assessor ask if you had notified building control?
and
Did you have to pay for reassessment after you had upgraded the tails?

Cheers.

jools p · Feb 26, 2009

The assessor did not ask if I had notified building control. You do have 30 days to notify building control of course.

I did not have to pay for reassessment as emailing photo evidence would be sufficient.