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davey1984

Hi at the moment im unable to afford a full house rewire and consumer unit upgrade so was wanting a little information regarding my current installation and what possible solutions i could do to add a little more protection to my current in home supply. I currently work as a 3 phase electric meter engineer so have a general understanding of electrics. my current cu is a very old style ceramic fuse carriers with fuse wire basically from noahs ark with no mcb or rcd protection. What i was going to do was install a rcd before the cu to protect the internal supply but have read this is not very clever as the rcds are sensitive and if theres a fault in any of the circuts all the circuts will be cut. i was wondering wether this could be rectifiyed in any way for example installing a double pole isolation switch from the the electric meter then a rcd then the existing cu? any help would be appreciated cheers
 
If your CU is a relic from the ark then chances are your wiring is going to be too but only a full inspect and test of the installation will tell you that. Your basic knowledge isn't really going to help you much on that so it might be worth spending a couple of hundred quid getting it done then talking to the inspecting spark about what your options are. You obviously have an inkling that a rewire is needed but doing it a bit at a time isn't really an option as it'll work out more expensive in the end.

Get the test done first though mate.
 
Does anyone think a double pole isolation switch would do any harm at least then if i do get an upgraded cu the electricain is able to work without having to interfere with the main fuse?
 
If you Rcd the whole of the installation,being ancient,there may well be problems,there may also be no problems

Unless you already have one,a separate Rcd and enclosure will cost you as much as a B+Q special,cheapie consumer unit

If you know a spark mate who can do basic tests,it may show up any problems that could arise beforehand

You could take a chance and fit the RCd to the tails but could possibly lose out on the cost after having to remove it because of earth faults

You could swap the rcd for the DP isolator if it fails,no harm having one in situ
 
Does anyone think a double pole isolation switch would do any harm at least then if i do get an upgraded cu the electricain is able to work without having to interfere with the main fuse?

your worrying about that and you fit meters all day ?

you must connect into live cutouts all the time ! lol
 
If your CU is a relic from the ark then chances are your wiring is going to be too but only a full inspect and test of the installation will tell you that. Your basic knowledge isn't really going to help you much on that so it might be worth spending a couple of hundred quid getting it done then talking to the inspecting spark about what your options are. You obviously have an inkling that a rewire is needed but doing it a bit at a time isn't really an option as it'll work out more expensive in the end.

Get the test done first though mate. As always, good solid advice, I agree, money well spent and you will know the state of play and what you need to budget. You can use an RCD plug on any equipment you are concerned about until you have changed your CU.
 
Davey, I've just noticed you're in the democratic people's republic of geordieland. I'd be happy to give you a quote for the inspection and test.
PM me if you'd like to talk and we can swap phone numbers
 

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