Discuss Consumer unit - new location in the Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

Welcome to ElectriciansForums.net - The American Electrical Advice Forum
Head straight to the main forums to chat by click here:   American Electrical Advice Forum

click4

-
Reaction score
3
Got a consumer unit which needs sticking on a sub main and moving due to current location meaning all the cables will need to go in the cavity and also it’s not most practical place presently.

Moving it inside but can’t decide on best place for it, either just inside by street door in a hallway, or inside the airing cupboard... it’s a bungalow.

Looking for views and opinions.

Thanks
 
Welcome to the forum mate.
Is this an additional CU to the main one or are you intending to move the main CU?
If putting all the cables in the wall cavity how do you intend to stop water transferring from the outside wall to the inside wall and also protect the cables? What about wall insulation?
Are you an electrician?
 
Got a consumer unit which needs sticking on a sub main and moving due to current location meaning all the cables will need to go in the cavity and also it’s not most practical place presently.

Moving it inside but can’t decide on best place for it, either just inside by street door in a hallway, or inside the airing cupboard... it’s a bungalow.

Looking for views and opinions.

Thanks
Not a huge amount of information there mate but can you place it somewhere where you dont have to extend cables? Less crimping the better:handok:
 
Cables in cavities - not something I like. Breaching the cavity as Spoon says, and also causing possible issues if someone ever drills for an outside socket and doesn't realise they are there.
 
Pretty much every council house I have ever worked on has its cables originally pulled via the cavity
 
Pretty much every council house I have ever worked on has its cables originally pulled via the cavity
[/I remember my father complaining to the local council about damp in our living room. It was those sockets all along....
Pretty much every council house I have ever worked on has its cables originally pulled via the cavity
My father was always complaining to the council about damp in our living room. It was the sockets all along.
 
In response to am I an electrician, could I kindly ask I don’t get flack please.

But I will be honest and say no I’m not, HOWEVER, I am doing this supervised by a registered and qualified electrician who will be testing it and signing it off, and as such he will be specifying the cable thickness and route of it and I will before the end of the year be studying an electrical course so I can get qualified.

Thank you for the responses.

I will try to be clearer,

It’s a bungalow, it has no consumer unit, supply cable and meter is in a garage which is attached to the side of the bungalow.

All it has is a very old MEM switch fuse unit which covers entire house, no individually fused circuits.

Other side of the wall is a bedroom, so can’t drill through into the house and run cables up inside wall and presently the cables from the switch fuse unit run inside the cavity into the loft.

Due to this issue of cables in cavity, and no consumer unit, and also... practicality of it being in garage if it trips in middle of night and person who will be living there needing a walking stick to assist them with walking, I feel the best solution is to move the consumer unit inside the house, and install it on a fused SWA sub main to get around the DNO meter tail restriction.

I will speak to the electrician in regards to the design of that submain, whether he’s happy for that single cable to go through cavity into loft or if he wants it taken to exterior of garage and into loft via soffits which would eliminate cable in cavity... this would probably be my preference but will see what he says. It has loose fill cavity insulation, the fluffy stuff they blow into the cavity.

As the location is already near to the soffits, cable may only be about 18” inside cavity. As outside wall is adjoining garage and top part shielded by soffits it shouldn’t get much dampness.

Then once in the house it’s a question of best location for it, I did ask the electrician but ultimately it comes down to me where it’s located as long as it meets regs so he didn’t have much advice on best location in terms of practicality so thought I would ask on here as it’s a wider audience.

Not too worried about crimping of cables as property is being rewired, I’m going to chase out all the boxes and walls, I also want to use galvanised conduit up the walls rather than capping for better protection and cable replaceability in future so will he installing that, then he’s going to come down and inspect it all, and then discuss the cabling with me... and once he’s done that I will install the cabling... and he will come back, connect everything up, test and sign it off.

So just a matter of if airing cupboard is suitable due to space restrictions when you have tank etc in there or best just inside the house by front door.

There is a small alcove

Consumer unit - new location 8A1591C1-0219-4382-968B-95FC21D34F57 - EletriciansForums.net

Entrance at the bottom, airing cupboard at the top.


Thanks again for the replies so far, appreciated.
 
I am doing this supervised by a registered and qualified electrician who will be testing it and signing it off, and as such he will be specifying the cable thickness and route of it

So its the main CU.
As your electrician is putting his/her name to this then it will be down to him/her to design this. You can suggest where you want the main CU going and they can then design accordingly.
 
Ah, your OP made it sound like you were moving an existing consumer unit.
 
So its the main CU.
As your electrician is putting his/her name to this then it will be down to him/her to design this. You can suggest where you want the main CU going and they can then design accordingly.

Yep, it’s the suggestions on where I want the consumer unit to go is what’s im asking.

Asking where other people feel is best based on experience from going out to properties and installing.
 
Your electrician has given good information. And the solution you’ve put together seems ok especially if the sparky likes it.

Can I just check are you sure the whole installation is on one circuit?
Lighting and sockets, maybe cooker and shower and heating all on the same size fuse.
 
Yep, it’s the suggestions on where I want the consumer unit to go is what’s im asking.

Asking where other people feel is best based on experience from going out to properties and installing.

It’s more a case of where you don’t not want it.

Not in the bathroom obviously.

Anywhere that is accessible for the user.

Id personally have it sitting on a wall in the hallway rather than in an airing cupboard or under stairs as you know the residents will fill cupboard with possessions rendering it inaccessible.

( I know it’s a bungalow so no stairs, just giving example)
 
Sounds like your property might benefit from a rewire or partial rewire. If your relocating your CU position, rather than jointing or crimping cables that will be too short, you could reposition the final circuit feeds.

If your intention is to carry out the installation, with design, inspection & testing by a third party, then there is a specific process for this. It can only be carried out by a registered third party certifier. Is your electrician registered as such? I day say a lot of people don't follow this process, but it might prove problematic, if/when you sell the property.
 
Sounds like your property might benefit from a rewire or partial rewire. If your relocating your CU position, rather than jointing or crimping cables that will be too short, you could reposition the final circuit feeds.

If your intention is to carry out the installation, with design, inspection & testing by a third party, then there is a specific process for this. It can only be carried out by a registered third party certifier. Is your electrician registered as such? I day say a lot of people don't follow this process, but it might prove problematic, if/when you sell the property.
think i spotted in a previous post that OP is having a rewire.
 
It won’t let me upload image of existing setup, will try and upload elsewhere and link to it.

It’s a mem Fuse isolator by looks of things, I haven’t removed the cover of it. But there is definitely no separate fuse box.

There maybe individual circuits inside the house, but if there is they are all wired into that single mem box.

The other tails in the Henley are for garage and shed, both no fuse box just isolators.

The electrician is with stroma and showed me a screenshot of his login which showed he had 3rd party sign off.

But I won’t be hiding anything or doing anything that would get him into trouble signing it off, everything will be under their guidance and inspected, also said I would send lots of photos as I go along etc.
 

Reply to Consumer unit - new location in the Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

OFFICIAL SPONSORS

Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Electrician Courses Green Electrical Goods PCB Way Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Pushfit Wire Connectors Electric Underfloor Heating Electrician Courses
These Official Forum Sponsors May Provide Discounts to Regular Forum Members - If you would like to sponsor us then CLICK HERE and post a thread with who you are, and we'll send you some stats etc

Electrical Forum

Welcome to the Electrical Forum at ElectriciansForums.net. The friendliest electrical forum online. General electrical questions and answers can be found in the electrical forum.
This website was designed, optimised and is hosted by Untold Media. Operating under the name Untold Media since 2001.
Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock