Do Henley blocks have to be covered?

[aa44]

I am doing a bit of planning for my new house and I have a question about Henley blocks.

The house is quite big (approx 400 sq m) and will have nearly 20 circuits. Rather than trying to squeeze everything onto one high integrity board I was planning to get two 10 way boards installed. We live in Shetland and the local electricity company don't use external meter cupboards because of the harsh winter weather. The supply will come up just inside the garage and the electricity company kit will be mounted to a board on the garage wall. The CUs will be mounted on or next to this board.

My understanding is that if I get two CUs fitted then there will need to be a 100A isolator switch fuse to give a single switch point and there will need to be some Henley blocks between the isolator switch and the CUs.

Do the Henley blocks need to be fitted within some sort of enclosure or can they just sit on the board?

I AM NOT GOING TO DO THIS MYSELF - I am just trying to understand how it will work so that I can see whether I need to provide some sort of cupboard or whether it can just sit on the board on the wall. (I will have a go at some things but this is definitely not one of them!)

 

[LoveRocket]

They can just sit on the board - no enclosure necessary.

Why not a 20way CU? (You do know that a 20way board is twice the size of a 10? )

 

[ban-all-sheds]

My understanding is that if I get two CUs fitted then there will need to be a 100A isolator switch fuse to give a single switch point

Or introduce a single point of failure.

Depends on your POV.

A switch isn't absolutely necessary.

Do the Henley blocks need to be fitted within some sort of enclosure or can they just sit on the board?

They'll be fine just sitting on the board.

 

[aa44]

They can just sit on the board - no enclosure necessary.

Why not a 20way CU? (You do know that a 20way board is twice the size of a 10? )

I know that I can get bigger boards but they seem disproportionately expensive. I can get two fully loaded 10 way high integrity boards for about the same price as a 20 way high integrity board with no MCBs. Either way the total cost is about the same and I think that the two boards give me more flexibility. (For example, if I have four RCDs then I can put some of the lights and the smoke alarms on one RCD and avoid having to put the smoke alarms on an RCBO).

 

[RF Lighting]

Don't forget the additional costs of the henleys and all the time your electrician will have to waste trying to cobble together a load of inappropriate bits just to save you a couple of quid.