electricians report

[Christian McArdle]

It's the safest method, so sod the law. I certainly would remove the main fuse when wiring up a consumer unit.

Christian.

[Ben Blaukopf]

I phoned up Powergen, who got Siemens round to do it. No charge.

Ben

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've been doing it for years. I value my safety more than any stupid reg.

[Jim Gregory]

We are normally so law-abiding (regs-respecting) in UK, but I did it. As you say, it was the safer thing to do, and, after adding a split CU and rewiring from fuses onto Breakers, the company fuse was later upgraded from 60A to

80A or 100A. But am still awaiting for the retaining wire and lead seal to be restored after 7 years (if that is what is done nowadays)! Not one meter reader has noticed! Maybe because my readings are always accepted. Jim

[Andy Dingley]

Only if you're planning to shove the tails up John "Part P" Prescott's jacksie.

Pull the damn fuse - it's better than frying yourself.

[Andrew Gabriel]

When I was doing the Part P consultation response, I got the supply network company to let me talk with one of their engineers who routinely deals with the main fuse. He also said they would much rather people pulled the fuse than attempted to work live. There was significant concern that one day someone wouldn't and would end up badly burned or killed as result, and HSE would then force the industry to install isolators on everyone's supply, which would obviously cost the industry a fortune. Some (possibly all?) of the suppliers would fit an isolator for free if you asked, at that time (3½ years ago).

BTW, I replaced my parents' CU 6 years ago. Phoned the company and told them the seal needed replacing due to CU replacement, which they noted on the records for the meter reader to do on next visit. Several meter readers came and went, and nothing happened. I phoned again a year or two later, and the note was still in the customer file. It's still not been done.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I pulled the main fuse here when I rewired - before actually moving in as it was a requirement by the BS for the mortgage. Still not sealed 30 years later...

To be fair, the riser is in the cellar and the meter at the top of the cellar stairs, so a reader isn't going to notice it.

[RichGK]

Well it is the answer I want to hear in a way as it allows me to make a judgement about what the report says. From what I've read there is nothing wrong with the one we have which is great as far as I'm concerned.

[David Hansen]

On Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:40:35 GMT someone who may be "RichGK" wrote this:-

That's good.

As someone else said earlier, MCBs are essentially a convenience. A convenience that costs a little more money, but is worth it in some circumstances. However, they are not safer than cartridge fuses and in some situations (such as high fault currents) they are a little less safe if not installed by someone who understands electrical circuits.

Their main advantage is that after transient faults electricity can be restored more easily. This is particularly useful for those who are not particularly good with electricity.

MCBs are slightly less open to abuse, though not as much as some think. It is relatively easy to replace a fuse or MCB with a bit of thick wire in an "old fashioned" Wylex style board. With a modern board this is rather more difficult. In a modern board there is still the piece of wire soldered across the fuse problem, but one would have to close the carrier and it is rather easier to replace the fuse.

[meow2222]

Meter readers seem completely uninterested these days. Its not unusual for them to never see the meter at all.

No doubt all this will cause a considerable upswing in frauds, and eventually the suppliers will have a job on their hands to reseal half the country's incomers. Then probably you'll start seeing lead seal kits on ebay, sold 'for private generation facilities only'.

NT

[Andrew Mawson]

unusual

Too late - they have already appeared !!!!!

AWEM

[Roger]

The message from [e-mail] contains these words:

I had my consumer unit changed some considerable time ago. If I had known that he was going to break the seal and pull the company fuse I would have dispensed with his services and done the job myself but in my innocence I thought he was going to do the job with the meter tails live and I didn't fancy doing that myself. As it was I had to completely rewire the consumer unit myself to make room for additional circuits as the professional's spaghetti left no space for additional wires.

I am not sure when this work was done but it was either just before or just after the meter was changed in 1992. I told the supply company about the broken seal and a meter reader subsequently stuck a warning label onto the fuse holder but it would not prevent the fuse being extracted.