Board for CU

[Piers Finlayson]

Should I be mounting a CU on a particular type of board (e.g. fireproof)? If so, are there any suggestions as to where to source (online)?

Thanks, Piers

[Tim Watts]

I used plywood, albeit that's onto a brick wall.

If the CU is fully enclosed (as all modern ones are) there is no particular requirement that I'm aware off.

Some ancient equipment was open backed hence the requirement.

[Geoff Pearson]

What is a CU?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Consumer unit.

The electrical thingy covered in switches

[john]

Consumer Unit?

[chris French]

Yup.

I used a bit of 18mm MDF , as I had a bit lying about.

[Piers Finlayson]

OK, ta. I'll choose something that'll fit in with where it's going then.

[Dave Liquorice]

Check with your DNO if they have any spec regarding size/material, they can be right fussy bar keepers. Also bear in mind that your DNO's responsibilty stops at the output of the cutout and the earth terminal.

The tails from the cutout to meters and meters themselves are your suppliers (ie the company you pay for power) responsibilty. At least it is in Electricity North Wests (old NORWEB) patch.

Found this out earlier in the week when asking about a meter move. Thought it would be simple for them not to bother moving one of the meters but no they aren't allowed to do that they have to shift everything and then the supplier brings someone else in to do the meter disconnection.

Then of course actually getting some one to come out look and advise about what is permissible/practical is next to impossible. They do all their quotes from plans, only sending someone out "when they really have to". Of course this means that when the engineer comes to do the move he finds what the quote says and what the work actually entails are different and goes away...

[ARWadsworth]

It was a question about the CU, not about the cutout or meter:-)

Tim Watts correctly answered the OPs question yesterday.

[Piers Finlayson]

And DNO was in last Friday anyway replacing the meter (presumably contracted by supplier to do the job). Didn't comment on any of my existing installation :-). Now I just need to find a dongle to read the flashing 1Wh flash and feed it into a computer so I can track my power usage.

[Andy Burns]

I now have smart meters fitted for gas & leccy, anyone have any experience of reading them over Wireless M-Bus? I found what appears to be a suitable reciever, £13 in module format but £50 in USB dongle format, not sure what software is out there ...

[ARWadsworth]

From a post a few years ago

[Andrew Gabriel]

I'm looking to do this too, having just had a meter change. I'll probably simply read the visible LED. The other one is a bi-directional IR data stream, but it's much more complicated to interface to, and commercial interfaces are very expensive.