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Consumer unit breakers
- Thread starter davebullocklive
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If it were me rcbos b6 for the lights.
And a b32 for the ring.
And a b32 for the ring.
Depends which ones you get. Honestly your electrician will know all this.
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That would be for whoever designs the installation to decide.
Honestly, while if you look around this board you will find that I often have "disagreements" with Ban-all-sheds, in this case I agree with him (and the others who have been trying to advise you).
It's simply NOT possible to say "circuit X uses size Y breaker" because there are too many variables. For example - most ring finals (aka ring mains) will use a B32 but there are situations where it is not allowed as the breaker would not adequately protect the cable.
As to RCDs, it's not impossible to do circuits without RCD protection (and there are cases where there is good reason not to have it), but it is usually by far the easiest way to meet the regs. Your current board probably met the regs when it was installed, but if you replace/upgrade it then the new work must comply with current regs - not those in place when the old board was fitted.
And one other thing you hinted at. Yes, in theory you could replace the board and probably no-one could prove it.
But, the law is very clear. Replacing a CU is notifiable to building control. So is adding a new circuit (which is what splitting a ring would involve). There are only 2 routes to this :
1) You notify building control in advance and pay their (usually exorbitant) fees. BC will normally insist on test results which will add further to the cost as you clearly don't have the knowledge to provide these.
2) You employ an electrician who is a member of an approved scheme and he notified HIS work through the scheme for next to nothing.
What is not allowed for is for you to do the work and for an electrician to "sign it off". The only way for that to happen is for the electrician to LIE on the papers he must sign.
So you might get an electrician to lie and be an accomplice to a criminal act by signing off your work. Or you could "just do it" without any notification which is also a criminal offence and (based on what you've been asking) probably unsafe.
Even I agree too.
But don't you get the feeling it's gonna be changed anyway!
But don't you get the feeling it's gonna be changed anyway!
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Look me in the eye and tell me the electrician is going to be fitting the new board.
Personally, I'd define "best" as an RCBO for each circuit - that completely eliminates the "when something on circuit X trips the RCD, what else do I have go off with it ?".
But as that is usually quite expensive, most people go for a dual-RCD board - like your gift one but with a second RCD fitted. And then split it so that one socket circuit is on one RCD and the other socket circuit on the other, ditto for the lights, so that a fault won't leave you with no power and no lights. It's still a pain when an RCD trips and a load of stuff goes off.
Number of socket circuits is "subject to debate". There's not a lot wrong with having just one circuit for the whole house (that's what I have here at the moment) - if you have central heating of some sort. Apart from the kitchen, there usually isn't a huge load in a modern house. But again, for convenience as much as anything, it's normal to split into more than one circuit - partly for splitting the load, but partly for leaving you with some working sockets if one circuit trips.
Similar arguments apply for lights - a B6 will drive over a kilowatt of incandescent lighting, which is a lot of bulbs to have switched on at once. Given the prevalence of low power (CFL and LED) lighting then one ciurcuit is (from a power POV) adequate for most typical houses. But having all your lights go off if there's a single fault is generally considered "inconvenient".
What you need for cooker/hob, shower, immersion heater, etc depends on the size (power) of the devices, the cable used, and the installation method (which significantly affects cable current capacity).
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That it is selected and installed in accordance with BS7671 - an A4 sized publication comprising 400+ pages.
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But then you'd have all the circuits on one RCD, which arguably does not comply with the Wiring Regulations.
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