Metal consumer units and TT

[mattg4321]

I know this has been done to death but I had my annual assessment with Elecsa a little while ago and the assessor told me that Elecsa would find it acceptable to fit an S type RCD in a plastic enclosure before entering the consumer unit.

I double checked this with him to confirm and he said either this way or directly into the consumer unit with a suitable stuffing gland.

Anybody else had the same guidance on their site visit? I was under the impression that this wasn't recommended (even though Wylex had it in one of their videos at one time). The IET need to pull their finger out and clarify whether or not this is 'similar equipment' imo.

 

[Leesparkykent]

I know this has been done to death but I had my annual assessment with Elecsa a little while ago and the assessor told me that Elecsa would find it acceptable to fit an S type RCD in a plastic enclosure before entering the consumer unit.

I double checked this with him to confirm and he said either this way or directly into the consumer unit with a suitable stuffing gland.

Anybody else had the same guidance on their site visit? I was under the impression that this wasn't recommended (even though Wylex had it in one of their videos at one time). The IET need to pull their finger out and clarify whether or not this is 'similar equipment' imo.

My NICEIC assessor said its not acceptable and they are the same group.

 

[mattg4321]

I was surprised when he said it to be honest. To be fair he's a nice guy and knowledgeable but Certsure need to get their act together on this too!

 

[Octopus]

You would have thought that the NICEIC and Elecsa would be singing off the same hymn sheet!

 

[Deleted member 26818]

To be honest, I consider this whole plastic/metal CU thing to be a farce.
The NICEIC used to condemn wooden backed CUs as a fire risk. So why are fire doors made of wood?
Now we are being told that plastic CUs (which the NICEIC wanted the wooden backed CUs to be replaced with) are unsafe and must be replaced with metal CUs, but only in domestic installations.
The DNO's are upgrading their metal heads to plastic, and have been taken to court because of house fires caused by faults in metal heads which have not been replaced.
Now it's OK to have a plastic enclosure for up front RCDs but the CU has to be metal.

 

[telectrix]

To be honest, I consider this whole plastic/metal CU thing to be a farce.
The NICEIC used to condemn wooden backed CUs as a fire risk. So why are fire doors made of wood?
Now we are being told that plastic CUs (which the NICEIC wanted the wooden backed CUs to be replaced with) are unsafe and must be replaced with metal CUs, but only in domestic installations.
The DNO's are upgrading their metal heads to plastic, and have been taken to court because of house fires caused by faults in metal heads which have not been replaced.
Now it's OK to have a plastic enclosure for up front RCDs but the CU has to be metal.

it's things like this that make you wish you'd taken up plumbing instead. :hippy:

 

[westward10]

Nice point about the plastic DNO heads and what about a bit of MDF to seal the top, sound job. Of course you can put the separate rcd in an all insulated enclosure so long as you then further enclose it in a fire proof enclosure which may well then need earthing and additional rcd protection, need I go on. The whole situation is a farce, once upon a time the PVC/PVC tails were not deemed double insulated but now they are and why, so you can fit a metalclad consumer unit to a TT system without additional protection. These so called tails have one layer of electrical insulation and a sheath solely for mechanical protection I find it difficult to believe they would pass any requirements for protection by way of double insulation. I would suggest to anyone using these for this purpose to ask the manufacturer for the conformity of it's double insulation properties, good luck on that.

 

[Midwest]

davesparks will be along in a minute to remind you tails are insulated & sheathed, not double insulated

 

[richy3333]

davesparks will be along in a minute to remind you tails are insulated & sheathed, not double insulated

Yeah, I'm not sure I agree with the statement that 'standard' tails are double insulated - unless you specially fit them.