I have recently had a sparky to do the electrics for me in another house of mine. they took the old consumer unit off the wall and seemingly attached a socket to something so that they were able to have electric i.e. a kettle while he worked. If you are totally re-wiring how do you still maintain electricity whilst you are working. Did he connect directly to the meter leads or something and is whatever he did common practice amongst sparkies? This baffles me