Hi since the extensions finished the old kitchen is redundant SWMBO wants a downstairs WC, as its big enough I was going to stick in a shower too at the same time - the only query I have is theres a cupboard in there with the Main CU - will this be OK in a bathroom - as if there is an issue with condensation/steam then it was a kitchen once and made more steam than a shower will :-) anyhting in the regs?
thanks.
Well, it can't be more dangerous than this:-
Nick
examples.
I presume this is why that sort isn't availabe in most civilised countries 'cos of the difficulty of making connections safely.
I'm tempted to bring one of them back with me some time. The water comes in through the horizontal tube that fixes it to the wall[1] and it would amuse me to put one in the bathroom connected to the normal mixer tap supply and install twisty wires and exposed switches - for decorative purposes only - just so my house guests can experience some of the fear that I've been put through.
Nick [1]The rubber hose attached to the side of the shower rose is a flexible bidet-like device. See? It gets better and better.
if its bolivia - theyre probably so coked up they have no fear !!!!!!!!!
A knife switch, preferably... That would match one a friend saw in some 3rd world country where he decided to have a cycling holiday some years back... Just what you don't want to see after a hard day's cycling when you arrive at your next hotel. He did use it, but only very tentitively put one bodypart under it at once, although quite how that would help any I can't imagine.
It is not steam but naked wet persons touching the CU that could be a problem.
I would not work on such an electrical setup.
In Bolivia, it's raw coca leaves and bicarbonate of soda (coca y bica) to ease altitude sickness and suppress hunger. The processed stuff is illegal (translation: exported.) Nevertheless, I was grateful that in one hotel I was using neither: the tingling effect from the badly earthed wiring that reached me through the plumbing might have been disguised by the numbing, tingling effect of the leaves.
I took a cold shower there: after carefully isolating all the wiring from outside the bathroom.
Nick
At a place I worked at 40 years ago we had a switchboard (415v 3 phase 500A) which had open knife switches. In front of the switchboard was a 1" thick rubber mat. A routine check 30 years earlier involved checking the knife switches for overheating by feeling them (fine with insulating mat). Someone was in a hurry one night and decided to check two together to save time (he mustn't have heard of the 'keep one hand behind your back rule'). The routine checking (other than a visual) was abandoned shortly afterwards.
Would it be OK if put in a locked / only accessible with a tool cupboard?
Cheers, David.
It most definately cannot be in a locked cupboard as you could not switch it off in an emergency.
I cannot find any regs that say a CU cannot go in a cupboard in a bathroom as it is effectively then out of the zones. The cupbard would need to be able to keep the moisture out. So maybe it is a legal possibility.
It doesn't seem a very good idea - if there were someone in the shower at the time an emergency occurred they'd probably have locked the door and it could take rather longer than you'd want to get access - even if you could make them hear you...
-- Mike
Loads of new build around here have the CU in the down stairs cloak. Same situation could occur there?
True - though I certainly don't usually spend nearly as long there as I would in a shower...
-- Mike
I was thinking about this the other day. Our house (and most houses around the same area) have the CU in the garage which is normally kept locked.
It's an old CU and fusebox as well, not a modern CU with RCD. How are you supposed to get to it to switch off in an emergency?
Indeed there are many CUs in unsuitable places. You would be hard pushed to get to one in a cupboard under the stairs in a hurry in most houses due to the clutter in there.
It would be so bad if I could get it replaced with a modern CU with RCD & MCBs. But when I spoke to a leccy about it, he said he would have to certify the whole installation as compliant with the latest edition of the standard, which it likely wouldn't be, and so would end up being very costly.
Seems stupid to me, to actually put people off making their installations safer because to do so would open a whole other can of expensive worms.
I don't think any of mine have been good, with the exception of my first house (dedicated meter and CU cupboard by front door - convenient for the meter reader too). In my current house they're in the cellar, which can be a real pain if the lights go out when you're on the second floor, while in my last house the meter and CU were just under the ceiling by the front door, requiring a trip to get the steps out from the cupboard under the stairs as they were too high to reach unaided. It was there because the power came in from an overhead cable
- the electricity board (it was pre-privatisation) refused to consider moving the meter to an outside meter cupboard.
-- Mike
There's a lot of regs like that.
Once you get involved with notifiable works, improvement doesn't count: it's got to be to latest regs, or leave it as it is (repair only).
Usual law of unintended consequences etc.
Goes further than the building regs as well - ask anyone at the bottom end of the pay/job market. Mostly they cant afford to go to work, and the employers cant afford to take them on.
America has had more of taht sort of legislation for longer than here, as a result its not uncommon to see 1930s installs still in daily use.
NT
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