My son wants a wall heater with pull cord installing in his bathroom. The consumer unit is on the other side of the bathroom wall, with loft space above so it sounds very simple. Only sparkly that has bothered to come give him a quote says he won't do it unless the whole consumer unit is changed at the same time. I don't know exactly what unit is there other than it has trips not old fashioned fuses.
Is this legit or is the sparky just angling for a bigger job?
Mike
Is this because it is not a metal case to the CU as now to be required?
Could be either.
Ask your son to put a picture of the CU and associated wiring up on a website so we can see it.
Without knowing the reason the sparky is suggesting a new CU is required, it is impossible to tell with the info provided..
Does the current CU have and RCD?
Can you take a picture of it, so we can read the text on all the trips?
That means the two plastic CU's that I fitted today are illegal:-)
Any reason why he cannot DIY it safely and sod Prat P?
2? That's good going.
No way of knowing without seeing what is already there...
It may be there is no RCD and one is needed, or no spare way and he wants a new circuit etc (and some older CUs with MCBs are difficult or impossible to get new MCBs for)
No, that does not apply yet.
They were not CU swaps - they were installs on new builds and no testing has been done. Two slightly different animals:-). New build CU installations, assuming a bog standard dual RCD board on a 3 bed or smaller house without testing usually takes about 45 minutes to an hour.
It took me 5 hours to swap a 3 phase isolator earlier in the week, test and clean up - 95mm tails are a PITA to work with and access to the isolator was not good.
He is not confident enough to delve into the consumer unit himself. I will be spending time there over Christmas so will find out more.
Can he legally do it himself with me as experienced guide?
Mike
Legally yes, although a consumer unit swap would be "notifiable" under part P - so in theory one would submit a building notice first etc.
For notifiable jobs, part P now has three official routes through: (1) via LABC[1], (2) by a Part P scheme registered installer doing and signing off the work, and (3) via a part P scheme registered inspector signing off your work.
(There is also the most commonly used unofficial fourth path, which is to do the job right and ignore it!)
[1] which may degenerate to something like the third option.
It was just the heater I was asking if can be done legally, not the CU. Only delving into CU to add a supply to the heater.
Mike
Adding a new circuit to a CU is notifable work[1] and there are other things that you may need to consider as this is a bathroom circuit - such as RCD protection and main and supplementary bonding - but there is nothing complicated about the job that should stop you DIYing it safely if you wish to do so.
A picture of your sons CU would help if you decide to DIY it.
[1] replacing a damaged cable is not notifiable - now are you sure you are not just replacing the damaged cable to the existing heater and not installing a new circuit:-)
...and whilst you're replacing that damaged cable, you notice that the old heater's looking a bit knackered, so you might as well replace that, too?
"It was whilst replacing the old heater with a new one that I caused the damage to the old cable"
"And the ladder fell against the CU, so I had to replace that, too."
And so... we... had a cup of tea.
"Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do."
A good try but a CU swap is notifiable work regardless of what happened to it.
Or course I could not give a f*ck if someone wants to DIY a CU swap and does it well. If you don't notify them then the Part P police have no idea that you have done it:-)
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