Replacing Consumer Units

[Martin Bosticky]

Hi

I will be replacing (by my self or get electritian to do it) my consumer units and moving them on the other side of a wall they are attached to. Currently i have two boxes and a fuse board. One box for storage heaters and the other box is connected to it with only one main switch and fuse of

60A). The fuse board has lights and other household circuits on it.

1. Can I replace these with a single consumer unit? i.e do storage heaters have to be separated from the rest (because they are on cheaper rating 7)?

Regards, Martin.

[Christian McArdle]

This depends on your Economy 7 switching. Older systems had a cheap rate outlet that only supplies power at certain times of day. The full time outlet would always be charged at full rate. Modern systems are the same, but meter the full time outlet at different rates at different times.

If you have a modern meter and switch, you can combine the consumer units (assuming you can get one with enough ways) by adding a beefy contactor controlled by the "economy" output, but powering the things from the full time outlet.

All this assumes you are on single phase. For 2 or 3 phase systems, it can get more complicated.

Christian.

[Lurch]

Or you could get a dual tarriff consumer unit, it is basically two units in one. You need to run a set of meter tails in for the 24hr and E7 tarriffs but you don't need to add the expense of contactors and such like, (also another maintenance issue). Also, modern meters wouldn't need then I can't see why you would need the contactor. The meter does that part of the switching anyway.

SJW A.C.S. Ltd.

[Martin Bosticky]

Thanks guys. I think this is over my head so i will have somebody do it. I will then re-wire the household circuits as necessary.

Thanks again, Martin.