Curve RCBO consumer unit from Denmans

[David WE Roberts]

noting that after much helpful comment from this NG I went ahead and had an RCBO CU installed.

My electrician was very impressed with the CUR-M14 unit (first time he's used it) - plenty of room to work in and about £100 populated. It is a lot larger than the old CU but then it isn't as if I am restricted on space and why struggle to get the last couple of circuits into a tiny CU?

Old CU is now in the shed with a double 13A socket and loads of potential. :-)

No longer need I fear taking out the whole shebang with an earthneutral fault. :-))))

Cheers

Dave R

[Dom Ostrowski]

All-RCBO CU's are undoubtedly the future, and RCBO's seem to be dramatically decreasing in price.

But so far I don't see the major suppliers offering these - only dual RCD units.

[A.Lee]

That's because they want to make more money for doing nothing - MCBs are pennies to produce. RCBOs are still seen as 'expensive', but available from most wholesalers at £15 or less. Screwfix have a comedic price of £30 ish each. Willts do a 8 way RCBO CU for £120, I use them and they are excellent, probably the same maker as the Denmans one - loads of room inside, which is something the bigger makes have just not caught on to, or maybe they dont want to.

Nearly all 'traditional' CUs are very tight for space when you use RCBOs, so it will cost them a lot to design and build a new range, but I can see in 5 years time that no-one will be installing dual RCD and MCB CUs.

Alan.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Fitted CPC "Pro-power" RCBOs in a shed. IIRC the 6A one was on offer at £6, and the normal price (for the 20A) one was around £15. I did put them in an MK waterproof CU though.

I have tended to avoid plastic CU's in homes (and that was over a decade before the recent research found they represent a fire spread problem).

[Dom Ostrowski]

Once we do shift to all RCBO's - there would seem to be an opportunity to revise the busbars in CU's as well.

The supply-side L is busbar - why not do the same with supply-side N ?

It would require only a fairly small change to RCBO's (drop the input-side N flying wire, replace it with a terminal), though main-switches would have to be modded to support this.

Current RCBO's with both L and N in the load wiring going directly into the RCBO is very nice from a cable routing POV.

[ARW]

That would be nice. And if the manufacturers could make the functional earth cable a reasonable thickness then maybe that would also be nice to work with.

[Owain]

Supply side busbar for that as well. 3 terminals on load side of RCBO for LNE.

Owain