Replacing an old CU with a new one

[ban-all-sheds]

No nonsense. It's an act, so it can only have the force of law when agreed to. (maxim of law).

FGS.

You are spectacularly ignorant, and you must, ABSOLUTELY MUST, stop giving people totally false information about what is a law, and what is not.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I'm a bit staggered at the leccy suggesting he use RCBOs everywhere if he wants them, using one on the boiler, and putting the garage through the main CU on it's own MCB.

I imagine he isn't a proper electrician.

 

[Naz1977]

oh I see.

All this time I have been told to get a leccy in, now he tells me what he is going to do, but he is not a leccy? I give up!

I have no problem paying for someone to do the testing, at the end of the day it is the whole purpose of the Part P isn't it ? To make sure the wiring is up to correct standards?

So if I do the wiring, and I balls it up, but it passes the test, then what is the issue? But of course it is not going to happen.

There seems to be a lot of leccys on here? Giving advise as to why we , the consumer, should go to them and get them to do everything! and the leccy that came and had a chat made it clear! if he doesn't do the wiring, he will not do the testing . Not because I am incompetent or don't know what I am doing, but because then there is no money in it for him! And this is what it comes to at the end of the day. They have to make a living somehow and if it means scare mongering consumer so that they think this is the case, then let it be.

I have decided what I am going to do. And it is to run the circuits myself. Terminate them according to the book and then get someone to come and do the EICR test for me. If the test is ok, then it is good enough for me. After all, they are supposed to test for all eventualities aren't they?

I will update this post in the next 2 weeks once I have changed the CU and got that signed off. The rest of the wiring might take slightly longer as it will be a work in progress. So hopefully someone else might find this useful and decide for themselves if this is something they want to go down the route off.

Thanks everyone for all your input, be it good or bad.

 

[aptsys]

Given you already have building control involved, I would just take the BC route for compliance with Part P. It'll be simpler overall.

 

[Naz1977]

Will do.

Had a chat with the inspector. He is happy if I do the work and he is confident I am competent enough to do it.

After the work is done, he needs the EICR report for him to sign off the work as part of the extension work.

As a leccy only charges about £300 for a complete CU unit swap, I will get them to replace the CU and do the earth bonding.

Then I can rewire the rest.

 

[sparkwright]

So had a leccy around and here is what he said he would do:

RCD1:
Ground Floor lighting - This is all the lighting circuits inc Bathroom light and Kitchen lighting
Upstairs Sockets ( Radial depending on the area, Ring if it is too big). - have since checked roughly and the area will be about 65sqm . So I think this will end up a ring.
Shower
Outside lighting
Cooker



RCD2:
Upstairs Lighting
Downstairs Sockets - Ring
Kitchen Ring Main
shaver socket,under floor heating, Towel Rail and the fan ( Fan will have a 3A Fuse spur on it).
Feed to the garage CU

On its own:
Rcbo Boiler


This is almost the same as I had with the exception of using 2xRCDs and not 3. he said it is ok to use 3 RCDs if I wanted to, but it would cost more. He also said best option would be to use rcbos everywhere but at the cost of £35 a pop, it will be expensive.

He is not happy for me to run the cables and chase and then he terminate and test. It is not worth his time and money as he won't be making any money on it! He is happy for me to chase the walls, but he wants to run the cables and drill the joists even though I am quite capable of making cuts in the joists at the correct space and distance from ends and ...

I have a mate who is a leccy but lives a bit far away, I will see if I can persuade him and get him to come up for the weekend and get drunk

Failing that, what would happen if I do all the work, and don't notify the board. I just then pay for an electrician to come and do a test of the whole electrics, the same as I did before I bought the house. Costed me £150 and he gave me a test certificate. EICR or something like that. That would then prove if my work is ok or not ? Would this be a problem?

Your electrician's design of how the consumer unit is much better than your arrangement. This way, if one RCD fails, you will still have a reasonable amount of sockets and lights still working to keep you going.

Not sure about an RCBO for the boiler, can only imagine it is important to you that the boiler remains working in the event of a fault. Nothing wrong with that i suppose.

The garage sharing an RCD? Is the garage detached? A detached garage could be wired in SWA, which wouldn't need RCD protection. Where the SWA enters the garage a small consumer unit could be fitted, containing RCD(s). This way if there's a fault in the garage you can re-set it without going into the house.

Loads of ways of doing garages, there's not always one correct way.

Shame your electrician doesn't want to do only the second fix and testing. That would have been some nice clean work for him, and it still would have been a biggish job for him.

I can only imagine he doesn't want to put his name on someone else's work. He may not trust your ability to run cables in lofts and under floors neatly, safely, correctly perhaps.

 

[phatboy]

I think you bought (or downloaded) a copy of the books required, and thought having a copy made you an electrician.

Good luck in your disastrous endeavour....

 

[stillp]

Not because I am incompetent or don't know what I am doing, but because then there is no money in it for him!

Not likely.
More likely because he has to guess whether or not you've damaged the cables during installation, and to make a general check on your work, because he is taking the responsibility for it being OK.

 

[John D v2.0]

Well cable damage could happen any time, it's the installation routes and methods that matter.
Cable damage between first and second fix (and even after that) is just something that happens and hopefully the tests would show that up before making the circuit live. If not it's down to the RCD or circuit breaker to ensure safety

 

[stillp]

No testing would show, for example, damage to the outer sheath.

 

[John D v2.0]

No testing would show, for example, damage to the outer sheath.

Indeed but what I actually meant is qualifications don't really help that because what electrician is going to stand guard over their first fix cables to make sure no cables were damaged before second fix. Not to mention damage after the installation is energised and handed over.

 

[stillp]

No, but my main point was the the electrician is not just testing, he is being asked to take responsibility for the installation carried out but somebody he doesn't know.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I can only imagine he doesn't want to put his name on someone else's work. He may not trust your ability to run cables in lofts and under floors neatly, safely, correctly perhaps.

Or perhaps he realises that if he had zero responsibility for that work he shouldn't sign a piece of paper to say that he was responsible for it.

Or maybe his decision was influenced by Naz going on about how his job isn't complicated and he's not going to be paid £3000-5000 for a rewire.

 

[aptsys]

No, but my main point was the the electrician is not just testing, he is being asked to take responsibility for the installation carried out but somebody he doesn't know.

To be fair, you can put someone else's name (Nax1977) against that on the installation certificate and just put his own name for testing. That's generally how 3rd party inspection works anyway.

Given building control are happy with an EICR it doesn't matter anyway.

 

[Naz1977]

Another leccy coming today to have a look and give a quote for the jobs I can't do having read the comments about boiler on its own rcbo and ...