Consumer unit regulations change

A heads-up that Amendment 3 to the wiring regs (due in January) will require home consumer units to be made of a non-combustable material (i.e. metal), or to be enclosed in a non-combustable enclosure. This follows a five fold increase in 5 years of house fires starting in plastic consumer units, often under the stairs, which are usually the only escape route. This applies to any other switchgear too, not just the CU.

The new requirement will be delayed until January 2016, to allow manufacturers time to produce metal consumer units in sufficient numbers.

Pleased to say I always throught the thermosoftening plastic CU's were a liability and I have fitted commercial metal ones when I've replaced CU's over the last ~15 years.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel
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Surprised it's taken this long and personally I have always thought that having the mains incommer, switchgear and commonly the gas as well, under the stairs is just stupid.

Maybe one of the ways to "punish" the excessive profits of the energy companies would be to require them to relocate the supplies to the outside wall - of course they'd never agree to it :)

Reply to
Lee

Is it retrospective, i.e. will everyone with a plastic CU have to get it changed immediately or within a limited time period, or is it only for CU's in new-builds or when one is changed during a house refurb?

Reply to
Chris Hogg

Does this mean that TT installations will again need an RCD before the CU?

(I accept a fair answer to me would be "find and read the amendment to you lazy c***.)

Reply to
Robin

I've always felt those modern floppy plastic things were no patch over a proper thermosetting Wylex box and was amazed they were considered compliant.

jgh

Reply to
jgh

Its very funny, cos my old original 1939 one with wire fuses was made of metal with little bakalite covers for the fuses. Some plastics do not burn but do melt and give off nasty fumes as they do so. I always thought it was a bad idea to use anything that can be toxic. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Very rarely is any change in any regulation retrospective. It raises the "who pays" spectre and no one want's to (or has the money).

I'd be very surprised it applied to anything other than new build or replacement.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Wiring regs are never retrospective.

The nearest they came to retrospective was the changes in 17th Edition which could be interpreted to require substantial upgrades when adding to a circuit to make the existing parts of the circuit conform. Many BCO's seem to have taken the view in such cases that the whole circuit can continue to conform to 16th edition regs.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

No. (They never did, although that was the cheapest option before having a single RCD protecting all circuits was explicitly called out as non- conforming.)

It's not avalable yet.

Reply to
andrew

Many places that would be very difficult and it would probably be better to scrap the entire supply infrastructure and install new. Thinking ordinary streets with the supplies buried *somewhere* under the houses to a main *somewhere* under the street or front gardens. You could dig up each junction and connect a new supply cable to the old leaving the old in thr ground but some of this stuf will be old ('30's semis may well be still be fed by orginal cabling, so 80 odd years old). Start poking it and it's going to break or become unreliable...

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

That's a rather dramatic increase and begs the question Why?

I can't imagine that the ordinary domestic load profile has changed that much, at least not to the point of overloading. So that leaves:

A change in the plastics used to ones that melt/burn at lower temps. A reduction in the average sparkies abilty to tighten screws properly. A change in the fire reporting that indicates an increase but there hasn't really been one.

I go for the third ATM.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

They did have wooden bases, or have you forgotten?

The problem with the metal clad stuff was it rusted, the paint is often so poor. I wonder if it'll have to be galvanised? I have metal ones, gave them a light spray of WD 40, seem to presreve them.

Reply to
harryagain

Thanks but I am not clear that addresses the point I had in mind. The ESC Q&A on this:

Question "Is an RCD main switch (such as a 100 mA time-delayed device) still required in the consumer unit of a new domestic installation forming part of a TT system?"

Answer "For a domestic installation complying with the 17th Edition where all the final circuits are RCD-protected, an RCD main switch is no longer required, provided that the consumer unit is of all insulated construction."

I wondered if the new fireproof CUs were likely in practice to be "all insulated construction".

Reply to
Robin

Don't spray the inside while it's on. ;-)

Reply to
Adam Funk

Why? Generally there so they don't ruin the look of a public part of the house.

Personally, I think those outdoor cabinets look hideous. And why would you want to go outdoors to re-set a breaker, etc?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

The star I've seen some of the boxes I'm suprised they're safe. I wouldn't want to reset a RCB or anyhting electrical outside in the rain.

Reply to
whisky-dave

LFB report in 2011 suggested main cause was poor connections to neutral busbars. See

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Included:

"While the main cause of fire within plastic consumer unit enclosures is without doubt poor workmanship, the materials used in the manufacture of such enclosures and possibly the type and arrangement of the components are other factors that can't be ignored. The increase in the number of terminations having only one securing screw and an almost unanimous adoption of 'cage clamp' type terminations are arguably a backward step in equipment design, irrespective of whether they comply with current product standards."

and

"Five common brands of consumer unit were selected for the first stage of the investigation. Initial tests showed that only two of the five brands included flame retardant in the plastic enclosure material, although there is no requirement in the applicable product standards to do so."

Reply to
Robin

Are you sure that you'd have to? I thought that these external boxes housed the meter to enable it to be read from outside, but surely the CU is on the inside? Mine certainly was in my previous house which had an external meter box.

Reply to
Roger Mills

I think you mean don't burn by themselves as all the common plastics will burn if you supply heat (from a bad joint for instance).

Reply to
dennis

Another possibility may be lack of flexibility in newer 25mm tails combined with new cage clamps instead of tunnel clamps which means that slight movement of a tail may loosen the clamp.

Why are the tails moved about? Meter changes?

I wonder if the fire investigations listed the tail sizes and type of clamp. And whether they were able to identify the exact source of the overheating.

Maybe more flexible tails are an answer.

Metal boxes are just about containment not about prevention.

If TT installations will need a leading RCD I suppose that will need to be in a metal box too and ........

It seems to me that the regulations are being changed before the situation is fully understood.

Edgar

Reply to
Edgar Iredale

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