Shower upgrade with slave consumer unit

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Frazer Gould

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I am upgrading my shower room and will be getting a qualified electrician to do the work but I want some advice so I can ask sensible questions!
I will be using a previous feed for an electric shower from the consumer board (down graded amps wise, which he has said is acceptable) and want to have a small "slave" consumer unit for a fan heater, extractor and lights. I want it as small as possible. It can be mounted in an area outside zone 1 and 2 but there will be potentially some humidity. I have seen a Plastic unit rated at IP44 and some metal units rated at IP40. It seems more sensible to ask for a plastic one with better protection but the regs say consumer units should be metal. Are plastic units, which are still available from reputable wholesalers, legal in this situation?
 
I personally would not put a consumer unit in a bathroom full stop. If I did I would want IP65 as a minimum. You will get small metal consumer units rated at IP44. As IP65 will not be achievable with any metal unit I know of I would revert back to my original thoughts.
 
Frazer Gould said:
I am upgrading my shower room and will be getting a qualified electrician to do the work but I want some advice so I can ask sensible questions!
I will be using a previous feed for an electric shower from the consumer board (down graded amps wise, which he has said is acceptable) and want to have a small "slave" consumer unit for a fan heater, extractor and lights. I want it as small as possible. It can be mounted in an area outside zone 1 and 2 but there will be potentially some humidity. I have seen a Plastic unit rated at IP44 and some metal units rated at IP40. It seems more sensible to ask for a plastic one with better protection but the regs say consumer units should be metal. Are plastic units, which are still available from reputable wholesalers, legal in this situation?
Click to expand...
Get the Electrician who is doing the work, to design and purchase all the equipment needed, after all he should know what he is doing.
 
Frazer Gould said:
I am upgrading my shower room and will be getting a qualified electrician to do the work but I want some advice so I can ask sensible questions!
I will be using a previous feed for an electric shower from the consumer board (down graded amps wise, which he has said is acceptable) and want to have a small "slave" consumer unit for a fan heater, extractor and lights. I want it as small as possible. It can be mounted in an area outside zone 1 and 2 but there will be potentially some humidity. I have seen a Plastic unit rated at IP44 and some metal units rated at IP40. It seems more sensible to ask for a plastic one with better protection but the regs say consumer units should be metal. Are plastic units, which are still available from reputable wholesalers, legal in this situation?
Click to expand...
Come on own up, come clean you're planning to do this yourself aren't you? Not a good idea.
 
Absolutely NOT doing it myself. Perhaps not clear is the shower room is in two sections (it was two rooms once) so there is a redundant doorway opening (no door) between the actual shower and the entrance area (changing etc) so part of the room is outside zone 2 which is where he (fully registered spark) has said it will be OK. Also the old shower feed which he intends to use is a direct feed from the main CU (which he fitted last year). I was just wondering in my question if I can ask him to used a non-metal "garage type" slave because of the potential for higher than normal humidity - there will be an inline extractor (250cm/hr) but they are not perfect.
 
Frazer Gould said:
Absolutely NOT doing it myself. Perhaps not clear is the shower room is in two sections (it was two rooms once) so there is a redundant doorway opening (no door) between the actual shower and the entrance area (changing etc) so part of the room is outside zone 2 which is where he (fully registered spark) has said it will be OK. Also the old shower feed which he intends to use is a direct feed from the main CU (which he fitted last year). I was just wondering in my question if I can ask him to used a non-metal "garage type" slave because of the potential for higher than normal humidity - there will be an inline extractor (250cm/hr) but they are not perfect.
Click to expand...
As said before Frazer the Electrician, if he is suitably experienced and qualified, will be able to source the right installation materials, unless of course you are intending to try and purchase the materials yourself, not really advisable, because should you, with all the best will in the World get the wrong stuff, not suitable for the job it would be down to you to get it changed.

Some Electricians won't even consider doing a job where the client has supplied all the materials, so best advice leave it to your chosen Electrician, and good luck.
 
Consumer unit in Bathroom?:eek::)


Trying to design a system whilst not understanding or knowing the requirements for the feeding and distribution of the loads is not going to be one of your brightest ideas
 
Spoke to my sparks today and following the comments to my thread I questioned the position of the slave CU. He said that it is outside zone 2 and is therefore OK where I want it but because the shower room is not detached from the main house he must use a metal CU even thought he agreed that in reality it, in my particular position, is probably not as good as an IP44 plastic one - but "regs is regs!" Thanks everyone for your input because I could at least question him with some knowledge of the wider view.

There will be those out there who may not agree with my approach but my daughter who lives in a 200 year old house in Cardiff was persuaded that as the earth was not to modern standard (the electricians words) the house needed rewiring. When he had finished he said that it was normal to pay then he would provide the BC certificate. He didn't and when BC were asked what she could do she was told to get another recommended electrician to check the work. It was condemned as dangerous and it was only because she had a 4 week old baby that he did not cut the power immediately. She won her case in the small claims court but of course he didn't pay back her money. £5k later a properly qualified electrician redid the whole job and issued the proper certificates. Hence my desire to at least be in the position where I can ask the right questions.
 
If you are going down that route then how about getting the better IP rate plastic CU and get a metal enclosure to go round it.
 
Ok Frazer

If a Consumer Unit is absolutely necessary and it really has to go in the described location I'd suggest this - I.P. 65 rated and 3 usable ways but the correct MCBs would have to be purchased separately.

https://www.NoLinkingToThis/p/briti...-shower-consumer-unit/1336j?_requestid=513082
 
Baddegg said:
I still don’t understand why?
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Consumer unit in bathroom = bad idea generally due to damp/steam etc.

And not needed - the shower can be fed direct, and the other items can be tapped off the existing circuits.

In my opinion anyway.
 
DPG said:
Consumer unit in bathroom = bad idea generally due to damp/steam etc.

And not needed - the shower can be fed direct, and the other items can be tapped off the existing circuits.

In my opinion anyway.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah I’m with you there dpg,I don’t understand why the op wants it there at all, surely if the existing shower cable tests ok use that,everything can be extended from existing or spured (fan heater) or have I completely missed something?
 
Last edited:
DPG said:
Consumer unit in bathroom = bad idea generally due to damp/steam etc.

And not needed - the shower can be fed direct, and the other items can be tapped off the existing circuits.

In my opinion anyway.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah I’m with you there dpg,I don’t understand why the op wants it there at all, surely if the existing shower cable tests ok use that,everything else can be extended from existing or spured (fan heater) or have I completely missed something?
 

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