17th Edition

[jimblev]

Please help!!!

Do I need my fuse box to comply with 17th Edition standard????

And if it does not, will this affect any sockets in the house?? eg Fridge/Freezer.

Thanks

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Can anyone help me??

I bought a Hotpoint fridge/freezer in January and over the past 2 weeks it has started to trip my electricity supply. The 1st time it happened I called out British Gas and they tested the electrics and said that the fridge/freezer was faulty. I contacted Littlewoods (where I purchased the item) and they sent out a Hotpoint engineer to test the appliance. He found no fault at the time so I switched the appliance back on and about 10 hours later the electrics tripped again. Again an engineer was sent out and the same result occurred. I then contacted Littlewoods again to ask for a replacement/refund and they (after much correspondence) asked for the British Gas report, which I e-mailed to them. They then came back to me and said that because my fusebox was not up to 17th Edition Standard that maybe this was causing the problem and that I had to get an independent electrical engineer to test the appliance, and that if he found that the appliance was faulty they would give me a refund.
Can someone please give me some advice on this??

They are spinning you a line. Ask them in just what way your CU is "not up to 17th Edition standard", and ask that they explain how this is the root cause of the problem.

 

[Wontdothatagain]

Tell them that the IEE wiring regulations are not retrospective so your currant Consumer Unit does comply with the regulations

 

[jimblev]

Thanks for the help!!!

They are still saying I need an independent electrical test and now they cannot help me any further with this problem!!!!

 

[stillp]

Haven't you already had an independent electrical test from British Gas?

 

[jimblev]

Yes, but Littlewoods said British Gas wouldnt supply them with the details of the report because of data protection!!!

 

[stillp]

But if you have the report then you could supply the details to Littlewoods!
It's nothing to do with dta protection regulations anyway, just a contractual matter.

 

[JohnW2]

Yes, but Littlewoods said British Gas wouldnt supply them with the details of the report because of data protection!!!

I'm confused ....

...I then contacted Littlewoods again to ask for a replacement/refund and they (after much correspondence) asked for the British Gas report, which I e-mailed to them.

Kind Regards, John

 

[jimblev]

The British Gas report mentioned that my electrics were not to 17th Edition Standard, and Littlewoods say that this may the problem.

 

[riveralt]

The British Gas report mentioned that my electrics were not to 17th Edition Standard, and Littlewoods say that this may the problem.

You say - they say - the CU is not up to 17th edition standard - but what type of CU do you have?
You also don't say what is tripping. Is it the MCB or the RCD?
Are all the circuits linked through one RCD?
A clear picture of the current CU arrangement would be helpful.

A second thought is have you tried the fridge freezer on a different socket circuit if you have one?

 

[jimblev]

I have no idea what is tripping it.

 

[riveralt]

I have no idea what is tripping it.

I can see you're confused but we are also confused by what you are saying or not as the case may be.

To repeat - in order to understand your problem we need to know.....
What is tripping?? - not what is tripping IT.

So is it the MCB or the RCD or both that are tripping the electricity supply?

If you don't understand what I am talking about then it is going to be very difficult to give you answers to your original question.

 

[rjm2k]

Ask them where in the their description of the fridge or the fridge documentation (less important since that came with after you bought it) it says that your CU must be up to 17th edition standard?

What is tripping on the CU, an RCD (normally has a switch and a "test" button) or an MCB (normally a switch)

Do you have a local friend/neighbour whos house you could try it out in?

They are using it as an excuse.

 

[stillp]

The British Gas report mentioned that my electrics were not to 17th Edition Standard, and Littlewoods say that this may the problem.

What else did the report say?

 

[securespark]

IME, fridges an be buggers for tripping RCD's.

I had a customer with an intermittent RCD trip problem. I went there countless times, an appliance engineer went there countless times to look at the fridge (that I suspected), and we ended up deadlock.

Eventually, my manager came out with me (him being an ex- white goods guy) and we pinned it down to the fridge.

A Samsung, stuffed full of electronics......