Well, been round to the neighbours house and got a peak at his "pro" CU installation. His sparky never phoned the DNO to ask about a load increase, he's cut the wire on the 100A main fuse and not even replaced it(I don't know if it's just the DNO that can do this, but our apprentices dad works for Fife council as a sparky and he says his old man does this when they do any work on their properties?).
As for the wiring he's taken the tails and ran them into single pole Henlys, so two of them, and put in a 5 way CU.
The earth from the new CU goes into a third Henly block(? eh?) left of the two necessary ones and is 16mm cable, it exits the block as 10mm earth and is connected to the spare earth point I'd already identified on the side of the main 100A fuse. Why? Surely the 16mm could have been run direct from the CU to the 100A earth terminal?
As for workmanship- there's a good 20-25mm of the grey sheathing removed outside of the Henlys/CU- I thought this double insulated tail idea was that it continued into the block/cu as far as you could get it, and you taped or marked the grey cables as to which was L/N???
I am going to do the work myself I've made that call.
We have a local Electrics factor up here whose prices are pretty damn good.
Shopping list is as follows:
7m 10mm T+E - 11.20
1m 16mm earth- 95p
1m 25mm Blue Tail- 1.99
1m 25mm Brown Tail- 1.90
MK 1100 DP Service Connector Block- 7.85
Wylex 2way Ivory CU- 13.00
Wylex 40A MCB- 7.30
Blank- 51p
45A Pull Cord Switch- 9.25
Pattress 1 Gang Extra Deep Box- 1.60
Redring 9.5kw Expressions Shower- 109.77(3yr guarantee unlike the competitors- got my last one from this company in '97 and it was still working perfectly in 2009, used in two flats in that time)
Might skip the pullcord/pattress depending on which route I run the cable, and just use a 50A switch located in the cupboard close to the CU(did that in the last place). Might also change to a 3/4way CU.
I'm gonna be in this house til I kick the bucket anyway, so having a bit of paper to prove to the next person it's been done "right" isn't important. My main concerns at this point are from the bending of the tails- and with this in mind I will be securing the existing tails to the board close to where they exit the meter, because the last thing I need is to be wrestling with them and have one come out of the meter because someone hasn't tightened them properly...that really would be a disaster needing the DNO to come out.
But getting a meter of L/N tails I'll be able to practice and develop a technique for shaping them prior to work starting, and stripping the sheath, and work out where on the board it's going to go and put the supply side tails in place etc.
As long as the connections are good, the wiring is up to spec, and it's double, nay triple checked before turning on I don't forsee any problems.
As for the plumbing side....a doddle.....will all be external pipework and probably JGSpeedfit so the white matches the bathroom walls.
Anything I've missed???
As for the wiring he's taken the tails and ran them into single pole Henlys, so two of them, and put in a 5 way CU.
The earth from the new CU goes into a third Henly block(? eh?) left of the two necessary ones and is 16mm cable, it exits the block as 10mm earth and is connected to the spare earth point I'd already identified on the side of the main 100A fuse. Why? Surely the 16mm could have been run direct from the CU to the 100A earth terminal?
As for workmanship- there's a good 20-25mm of the grey sheathing removed outside of the Henlys/CU- I thought this double insulated tail idea was that it continued into the block/cu as far as you could get it, and you taped or marked the grey cables as to which was L/N???
I am going to do the work myself I've made that call.
We have a local Electrics factor up here whose prices are pretty damn good.
Shopping list is as follows:
7m 10mm T+E - 11.20
1m 16mm earth- 95p
1m 25mm Blue Tail- 1.99
1m 25mm Brown Tail- 1.90
MK 1100 DP Service Connector Block- 7.85
Wylex 2way Ivory CU- 13.00
Wylex 40A MCB- 7.30
Blank- 51p
45A Pull Cord Switch- 9.25
Pattress 1 Gang Extra Deep Box- 1.60
Redring 9.5kw Expressions Shower- 109.77(3yr guarantee unlike the competitors- got my last one from this company in '97 and it was still working perfectly in 2009, used in two flats in that time)
Might skip the pullcord/pattress depending on which route I run the cable, and just use a 50A switch located in the cupboard close to the CU(did that in the last place). Might also change to a 3/4way CU.
I'm gonna be in this house til I kick the bucket anyway, so having a bit of paper to prove to the next person it's been done "right" isn't important. My main concerns at this point are from the bending of the tails- and with this in mind I will be securing the existing tails to the board close to where they exit the meter, because the last thing I need is to be wrestling with them and have one come out of the meter because someone hasn't tightened them properly...that really would be a disaster needing the DNO to come out.
But getting a meter of L/N tails I'll be able to practice and develop a technique for shaping them prior to work starting, and stripping the sheath, and work out where on the board it's going to go and put the supply side tails in place etc.
As long as the connections are good, the wiring is up to spec, and it's double, nay triple checked before turning on I don't forsee any problems.
As for the plumbing side....a doddle.....will all be external pipework and probably JGSpeedfit so the white matches the bathroom walls.
Anything I've missed???
