Electrics Questions

[Jeff Gaines]

I am about to move into a new (to me) house - built in the late 1970's and I want the old style consumer unit replaced by one with built in RCD's. Assuming no horrors come to light what sort of cost should I expect (Pewsey, SN9)?

The various forms I got when buying the house asked when the electrics were last tested. What is involved in such testing and would it be sensible to ask the electrician to do it at the same time? (Perhaps he would want to/is required to anyway?).

There is plumbing in the downstairs cloakroom for a washing machine, but no power socket. Having looked at the FAQ:

will not be possible to have a socket 3 metres away from anything, room is too small. Would it be legitimate to drill through the wall into the under-stairs cupboard, sleeve the hole, and feed the w/m cable through to a socket in that cupboard?

[ARWadsworth]

£300 and upwards

The electrician will have to do a full test when changing the CU. Ideally before changing the CU.

toilet and sink room then a socket outlet is allowed.

[John Rumm]

If paying for someone to do it, then £300 upwards I would have thought. Note that this can be an open ended exercise - due to the assumption that the change does not uncover previously unknown wiring faults.

To which the usual answer is never... ;-)

There is no requirement for testing. You can however request an electrician does a PIR (Periodic Inspection Report) for you. This will give you an overview of the state of the system in general, and a more specific list of any faults. You can then decide the best way to proceed.

restriction does not apply.

That may be missing the point...

If its a small room that is likely to get wet repeatedly from spray and steam from a shower say, then its not a place for an appliance like a washing machine in the first place since its not desired to work safely in that environment.

[Dave Osborne]

suggest you download and read guides 1, 4 and 6.

HTH

[The Wanderer]

Quite a few years since I had anything to do with them, but Head & Robbins were a good and trusted contractor in that area.

[Andy Dingley]

Assuming it's the big estate houses in Pewsey (I lived there for 6 months) they're not that old and you shouldn't turn up as many horrors as you might in something that has still rubber-covered wire in it (like the House of Usher I live in!).

Budget =A3500, if you pay =A3250 it has gone straightforwardly and you've done well. Bare materials cost is getting on for =A3100 and there's a good bit of work involved. It's lots of small jobs - can expand easily if other connnected things need changing. OTOH, most of these aren't large houses and it's not as big a job as it could be.

You will be paying for testing throughout, it's just necessary. If you have your sparky stick a socket in while the rest of this is going on, you'll not notice the tiny extra.

In other CU questions, which brand(s) would you buy and what you avoid?

[Tabby]

You're unlikely to see a significant safety gain by doing so. Better to concentrate time & money on the areas of houses that do injure and kill, such as stairs, fires and possibly beds.

and non-issues marked down as immediately dangerous, and requiring you to pay them to 'rectify'

NT

[ARWadsworth]

Maybe Jeff does not want to be one of the 200,000 people admitted to hospital each year due to electric shock.

[ARWadsworth]

Typical problems in a house of that age would be a borrowed neutral on the landing light, mains bonding that needs upgrading, and any bodged DIY. Of course there is nothing stopping Jeff DIYing some of these thing if they need it.

I believe that there is something in the Wiki on that, but it is far from complete. Remember some spare ways for future use!

[BruceB]

Maybe Jeff does not want to be one of the 200,000 people admitted to hospital each year due to electric shock.

***********************Interesting and astonishingly large figure. I am not sure I believe it. The only analysis of casualty admissions I was able to find on a quick google did not even have electrical as a category as it was so small. Regards Bruce

[Jeff Gaines]

[snipped]

Many thanks for all the input :-)

The downstairs cloakroom does have a shower in it, although my days of hot steamy showers (which from memory require 2 people) are probably over sadly!

The house is on the English Heritage retirement development off Swan Lane for those that know the area. All plastic wiring but white, not grey. Seems to have been done well though - the switches and roses have red sleeving on the black wire that carries the live.

I take the point about a w/m in the shower room but it's the only feasible location and I doubt I will use the shower much, I prefer the bath.

Any thoughts on a hole in the wall for the w/m cable? There is already a socket in the under-stairs cupboard although it only has a single cable so is, presumably, a spur. If it makes a difference I can always get the electrician to roll it into the ring circuit while he's doing the work.

[Ronald Raygun]

I don't think electric blankets were mentioned.

[John Rumm]

Impossible to say without additional information about the state of the current install, the OP, their family, and a host of other things. Blanket statements are pointless really.

The categorisation of faults found in a PIR are reasonably well laid down and not open to too much over egging.

[John Rumm]

I would tend to avoid the electrical wholesaler "own brands" on the grounds it can make getting spares harder later. Even with the big names, most of them seem to have developed an annoying habit of having minor product refreshes every few years though. Sometimes these are just cosmetic, but some are more irritating like subtle changes to MCB form factor such that new does not fit old as well as it might etc.

[Robin]

I too was gobsmacked by those statistics. They contrast with the NHS data on A&E attendances [1] which show "electric shock" as the primary A&E diagnosis for 4,021 attendances in 2008-09 and 13,814 in

2007-08. I am not saying the ESC figures are wrong and the NHS figures are right as there are many other possible explanations: eg the NHS figures need to be "grossed up" for the many invalid records. And it may be that some of the many A&E attendances for burns or other injuries were caused by electric shock. But I am sceptical enough to wonder just what questions were put by Ipsos MORI given the number of *admissions* might be expected to be lower than the number of *attendances*.

But just think, with those figures how long before a new CU is available on the NHS?

[1]

[John Rumm]

A switched fused connection unit would be the legit way to connect it in the room in which case - that meets the requirement set by the location. The only argument then is over suitability of the appliance for the location. If it not being heavily used for showers then there is probably no reason to object based on that.

[John Rumm]

Twas part of my point... if they are used, then RCD protection on the circuit they are powered from is highly desirable ;-)

[Ronald Raygun]

So now you're saying blanket statements are *not* pointless? :-)

[A.Lee]

I've had the same trouble in the last week. I wanted a RCBO for a garage wiring extension. Went to get one, but it appears my 14 year old Siemens (same as MK) CU is now obsolete, so I had to buy a new CU. Hopefully this one will outlive me.

Alan.

[ARWadsworth]

That is a big jump in numbers for just one year.

It would be nice to see the questions.

link BTW.