New consumer unit (not DIY)

Can't understand the difficulty. You buy as many or as few breeze blocks required in Wickes and the biggest B&Q's.

Any decent builders merchant will sell you what ever number you want, just don't go in on a SAturday morning or you will may be regarded as rich pickings.

Or even borrowed neutrals ?. Don't all earths go to a common point anyway ??

In message <t0g6el$vpp$ snipped-for-privacy@gioia.aioe.org>, at 19:03:47 on Fri, 11 Mar

The difficulty (at the time, about five years ago) was that most of those didn't list breeze blocks at all. Have they now added them to the catalogue?

Believe me, I tried every one within 50 miles.

Most have nationally-set "computer says no" filters. So they won't for example normally split palettes up, because there's little demand for

Mid-morning mid-week is best. I did find a distant Travis Perkins to sell me some other groundwork piece parts, despite the much nearer one not listing them at all (moral here is that not every one in a chain stocks everything the others do).

Sorry - borrowed neutrals was what I meant. Put it down to brain fart!

I knew what you meant.

BTW although it will not find a borrowed neutral I have often run a fuse box via a 30mA RCD as a test before swapping it for a RCD CU. It saves all the trouble of meggering the circuits.

OOI, I wonder if we are seeing more borrowed neutrals work with RCDs these days. If an LED lamp is 2W, at 230V that's 8.6mA - below RCD rated tripping current. Obviously many RCDs are sensitive below the nameplate 30mA, and if you turn on lots of lights it's going to trip, but maybe there are cases of isolated lights (like toilets and such) which get away with a borrowed neutral when there's an LED in there.

Theo

Presumably also a way of basic testing an RCD. Wire up a bulb that takes just over 30mA via an MCB intentionally connected to the 'wrong' neutral and see how long it takes for the RCD to trip ?.

Or just use the test switch which is just a resistor that does the same thing.

What did he quote?

In message <t0o0mp$kc2$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, at 18:14:49 on Mon, 14 Mar

Just got it in. He wants to combine all three existing CUs into one new one. £749, no breakdown of the various elements, or specification (eg number of circuits, RCD or what or not, etc). I did also ask about new tails and these aren't mentioned.

Can I interest you in the young Gloucester Old Spot I have in this Louis Vuitton "shabby chic" bag?

In message snipped-for-privacy@outlook.com, at

Yes, it's about twice what I was looking for, although for a "quick sale" and getting this project off the list, I might have paid a slight premium.

In message snipped-for-privacy@perry.uk, at 18:03:19 on Tue, 8 Mar 2022, Roland Perry snipped-for-privacy@perry.co.uk> remarked:

Postscript. Gave the job to the second person to quote.

One new unit replacing all the three, plus new tails, surge protector, a new twin socket under the stairs and all the T&E put into trunking.

Took him about six hours (including testing), resulting in seven circuits plus one spare.

Total bill around £500.

Full disclosure: one outstanding issue with 2-way switched upstairs hall light, but fixing that will need going up in the attic, and there may not be enough conductors to the downstairs light switch.

It's been disconnected for now. I'm wondering if the simplest thing would be powering from nearby fully functioning upstairs lights, with cordless on/off switches. That way we can also have an upstairs switch in the master bedroom, which is preferable to only half way along the hall.

It is normal to ask for an estimate or quote first. I would have expected a cheaper price.

Given the work done I would say that is on-target.

In message <t3gst4$h3t$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, at 12:15:47 on Sun, 17 Apr

I did that. I wasn't reading the £749 off a cornflakes packet.

So would I.

Coward :)

Owain

The comments on complications that follow are one reason we diy. I'd start by assessing what's there so you know what does & doesn't need doing. Otherwise it could wind up being anything from a CU swap to a full rewire & redecorate.

In message snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com, at

Did you DIY the NICR, or had someone else do that part?