Minimum distance between meter and CU?

[RichardS]

Right, decision taken, I'm going to change the CU before christmas for a nice shiny new one that will have plenty of spare ways for those circuits that I won't be able to install now, and with RCBO protection for the external circuits & kitchen along with a new non-RCBO circuit for fridges, boiler & freezers.

As larger enclosures don't cost that much more than smaller ones it makes sense to put the largest one that will fit in there.

I know the distance between the meter and the edge of the mounting board (where the current CU sits), but in determining the maximum size of CU that will fit in there is there a minimum distance between the edge of the CU and the meter that must be observed (and indeed a minimum distance between the edge of the CU and the edge of the mounting board)?

I also plan to mount a 2-unit enclosure with a 100A main switch in it to act as an isolator - this would have to be mounted below the meter. All tails, cables, etc will be routed in beautiful workman-like fashion, but any problems with this spatial arrangement?

[Christian McArdle]

Just keep the total length of tails below 2m and remember that technically you aren't allowed to mount your consumer unit or isolator on the board at all.

Christian.

[RichardS]

That's interesting - it's all on the same board at the moment! This is the board with the meter on, not the main service fuse - that's on a separate board altogether.

Meter tail length not a problem - they'll be about 60cm, pretty much the same as now.

[Christian McArdle]

technically

Indeed, not a particularly uncommon arrangement, if not actually permitted...

Christian.

[RichardS]

Hence my desire to do this now, whilst I'm still permitted without further inspection....

I reckno that if I change it now nobody will so much as raise an eyebrow. After 1st January, well who knows? If it's by the book then I'd probably have to get the electricity supply company out to remove, reduce size of and refit the board, create and mount another board, rebuild the entire meter enclosure and a whole manner of other work. So the cost might go from

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Think the reason is that technically the board belongs to the supply company as does the meter - you are merely renting them.

However, if they *really* didn't want anything mounted on it they'd use one of an appropriate size.

[bob]

Why Their is no maximum distance from the REC fuse to the Consumer unit detailed in any Electricity Supply documentation. Bob

[ARWadsworth]

The supplier may state the minimum cross sectional area and maximum length of the tails according to the OSG.

Usually 3m length and 25mm^2 CSA with Yorkshire Electricity.

Adam

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Years ago when doing this for some flats, the LEB insisted on MICC from the fuses to meter/CU.

[Andrew Gabriel]

LEB did a ~10m run of SWA in my brother's case. I was slightly surprised they didn't install any type of switch/fuse.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

This would have been circa 1970.

My house also has SWA from the riser in the cellar to the meter at the top of the stairs - and no switchfuse. It was also done sometime round about '70 - before I bought the house.

But the LEB guy was adamant about the MICC - perhaps for fire reasons as it ran through other flats in places.