Not for me!
It is an old Wylex consumer unit, remember the type with a wooden frame base, dark brown plastic cover and fuse wire carriers, which pushed in to insulated coloured slotted bases. The fuse carriers at some point were replaced with a more modern flip switch MCB, rather than the Wylex push- button MCB's.
He is now considering installing some RCD's to replace the MCB's is there one which fits the old Wylex please?
No, and even if there were, wooden frame consumer units are well overdue for replacement.
Owain
No it's a total non-starter. For one thing an RCBO is a four terminal device.
I don't suppose for a moment any part of the CU is wood, just the "cable management" it sits on.
I do know of a wooden fuse box in a business premises in Liverpool. May or may not be still there, the fuse box I mean, (but who knows!)
The frame of my old Wylex fuseboard was indeed wood (1970's house)
same as here ...
I would not expect so... RCBOs would need connection to both L & N of the supply and the circuit (and possibly earth as well). The layout of the old wylex boards is just not suited to that.
Since the cost of the exercise will hinge more on the cost of the RCBOs that the CU enclosure itself, he may as well replace the enclosure as well.
I knew about the need for the neutral to pass through, but hadn't given it much thought.
Thanks, that was a conclusion I was expecting, I just wanted to confirm it as the only way forward for him. He had no RCD's and regularly uses mowers and strimmers, so I have given him a 13amp plug in RCD as a temporary fix. He just needs to remember to use it.
Thanks for that, the one I had, complete with the retrofit MCBs must have been the same, but even though I had the cover off a time or two, I don't recall the wood.
Swapping the nearest socket to the door with an RCD one should do.
NT
The main box was usually a Bakelite type of material, but often the very rear spacer section was wood.
Like:
snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com was thinking very hard :
I have him looking at adding a properly wired outdoor RCD socket, to replace one which I had to condemn earlier in the year. The one I condemned was outdoors, a normal indoor socket, fed from the lighting circuit, via a 5amp connector out in the weather, and the earth wire had corroded away 8-o
I know of a fuse box that is wood with the interior lined with asbestos sheets which when it was installed decades ago required the installer to drill holes through those for the cable entries.
G.Harman
You could replace the socket he uses with one incorporating an RCB.
Good serviceable stuff.
It was kit like that that, when you installed it, you knew it would outlast you, as you coughed your way to an early grave.
Owain
Has he made a will?
Owain
Hard asbestos cement sheet is not really a significant hazard. A lot of the world still uses it, it's here where Safety Police have overreacted again. Soft/fluffy asbestos is the dangerous stuff.
NT
snipped-for-privacy@gowanhill.com expressed precisely :
I understand he has 8-o
Why not simply replace the CU with a modern one? It's not a difficult job if you take your time and label things as you go.
Would this have been asbestos cement though, I'm familiar with that as most will be as thousands of roofs , gutters, etc are still in use made from it. This was thinner sheets much the same as was found on Ironing boards for the Iron rest at one time. To be honest I have never bothered to find out how such sheets were made.
G.Harman
En el artículo , snipped-for-privacy@gowanhill.com escribió:
Still got mine (with the retrofit breakers). Nothing wrong with it. The wiring is PVC, in good nick and I've changed all the switches and sockets.
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