Type 2 MCB still legal ?

[squowse]

My GE consumer unit takes "E series" MCBs which i have found very difficult to source as apparently GE went bust and got bought out.

I have found some E series breakers but they are "type 2" not "type B". The type 1,2 etc; were the old versions of type A, B etc? Are they still legal to use - ie is my electrician going to be able to use them to add new circuits?

(About to employ one if anyone has a recommendation for an intelligent and helpful qualified Electrician in south/central manchester - the job is running a supply to an outside building)
Thanks
Rog

 

[hairyben]

Does your board have RCD protection?

If not, the new circuits will very likely need it, so you may be looking at a small extra board, or it may make sense to renew the GE.

Types 1, 2 etc are still "legal" though.

 

[sparkybird]

Yes, in fact the old rewireable fuses are still legal!

Max Zs values will be differ between type 2 and type B.

Don't forget that under the 17th ed new circuits where cables are concealed in walls will require rcd protection.

I recently fitted an rcbo in a GE Series E board. WF Electrical sourced the breaker which was DPE100C06/030 RCBO 6A - thier part number 729468. It fitted fine. Might be worth getting in touch with your local branch

SB

 

[securespark]

Don't Denmans still do Steeple range breakers & CU's that are GE??

May be worth ringing them too.

 

[Spark123]

Rexel Senate also had their own branded "Sector GE" MCBs, maybe worth a shot.
Don't think General Electric have been brought out - their website is still up and running http://www.ge.com/
http://www.geindustrial.com/publibrary/Download.jsp

 

[squowse]

No there is no rcd protection on my board so will probably look at an extra box or i'm guessing it may be cheaper to replace the consumer unit.
Worth having the protection on the whole house i think. Hope it doesn't detect any small leakages that are pre-existing though.

Just a thought - Is it possible to get RCDs of different sensitivity? all the ones i see for sale on consumer units seem to be 30mA. Maybe I could use a less sensitive one on the consumer unit and protect more vulnerable installations like my workshop with the 30mA sockets?

 

[sm1thson]

your electrician 'should' test for leaks before changing the board. 30ma is what is needed for shock protection, you dont want anything less sensitive. to make it less sensitive to tripping: circuits are spread amongst more RCD's.

the 'best' (ok its arguable) way is an RCBO on each circuit, the least generaly accepted is the house circuits divided over two RCDs, the most common practace seems to be circuits over two RCDs then smoke alarms etc on their own RCBO.

Garage supply (depending on other factors (swa cable all the way etc)) is generally not RCD protected before the separate CU in the garage.

 

[squowse]

yes i'm interested in why the cable in the ground isn't generally protected by RCD, only the sockets etc after the consumer unit at the other end. My situation is that the cable will be running in the void under a suspended timber floor then through the wall then buried for about 7m in the garden. I an fairly sure that he will be using 2.5mm2 SWA.
My electrician will only do what's right i'm sure but i like to understand and think about any choices before hand rather than regret after.

 

[plugwash]

A properly installed SWA cable is pretty low risk even without RCD protection.

It should be deep enough that you don't normally run into it will digging, there should be warnings before reaching it (the regs specify warning tape, it is also widely sugested that you bed the cable in sand as an extra warning that there is something going on if the tape is missed). Finally if you do somehow manage to dig through it your spade should hit the earthed armor first which should insure a rapid short circuit and blown fuse/tripped MCB.

There are a few reasons for putting the RCD at the outbuilding end.

1: it's more conviniant, if you do manage to trip the RCD it is in the same building as you, not some distance away in the house.
2: there may be some things in the outbuilding that you either don't want on RCD at all or you want on seperate RCDs from everything else. An example may be a freezer in a garage.
3: it's often cheaper (afaict a RCD incomer CU for the outbuilding plus a MCB for the main CU is generally cheaper than a switch incomer CU plus a RCBO for the main CU)

 

[squowse]

ok so i think i will go for a consumer unit in the shed with rcd protection, the walls are just shiplap boards onto timber posts so the socket and lighting circuits will have to be in steel conduit?
and the armoured cable will connect to the house consumer via a 32A MCB.
sound ok?

 

[plugwash]

steel conduit sounds like overkill for a domestic garage to me, high impact PVC conduit is much easier to work with and should be more than suffican't for protecting cable from the knocks it's likely to get in a domestic garage.

 

[squowse]

i take it cables simply clipped to exposed joists and timbers (such as in my cellar) are a no no?

 

[plugwash]

Afiact the regs don't have anything explicit to say about that they just say equipment should be suitable for it's environment. So IMO it depends how the garage is going to be used, if a cable is in a location where you think it would be prone to damage it should be protected.

What some people do is run T&E in conduit up to the ceiling and then run it round clipped direct near ceilling height where it is less prone to damange but I tend to think that once you are putting some of the wiring in conduit you may as well do a proper conduit job (doing a proper conduit job also has the advantage that you can use singles which are much easier to pull into conduit than T&E).