Re: Circuit breakers
Originally Posted by
RossT
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@ Judd re post#24
Thanks for those comments. The reason I have delved in to this area was that some time ago, I was thinking of renting out this house (though it never happened) and so started to think about what might need doing to make sure that the electrics would be ok. It was then that I realised I didn't have an RCD but just the old ELCB. I'd had a new Wylex consumer unit installed when I first moved in (1993) and so thought everything was "up to code"...but not so. I'm out in the sticks so the house as its own earth spike (TT supply?) and that's probably not up to code (needs heavier connecting cable) and the connection between the consumer unit and the water supply probably needs heavier cabling also. I gather that changing consumer units now must be done by a "top level" electrician and he has to report the work to the local council, or if a lesser electrician does the work, I have to pay the council to come and check it out? Is that right? We live in "highly specified" times!
Your earthing cable going to the `spike` needs to be at least 6mm, same with main bonding going to water and gas pipes. Anything less than this should have been sorted when the new consumer unit was installed. If this was as recent as 1993 this should have been a plastic `split` design model, i.e. sockets, showers and outdoors equipment on the 30mA RCD side, all the rest on the main switch side. As this is a TT supply, that main switch should have been a time delayed 100mA S type RCD so as to give the 30mA trip time to operate. The existing ELCB should have been removed.
These days of course everything has altered. On new installations, the main earthing lead to the spike should be 16mm and the bonding to water and gas should be 10mm. Another thing now is that consumer units are mainly metal to prevent any loose connections causing a fire. In the `old days` metal CUs would not be allowed on TT systems as there would have been a risk of electric shock on the unit itself. This has now been addressed by the use of a stuffing gland which has a thick rubber grommet within it with three pre-drilled holes one for each 25mm meter tail and one for the 16mm earthing lead. When installed and tightened up, the tails and earth lead are gripped tightly to prevent them moving. Each circuit would then have (preferably) its own RCCBO (RCD and MCB combined) but dual RCD split load CUs are still okay.
You are correct in saying that an electrician has to be registered with the ECA, NICEIC or some such other governing body to do the work or they can notify your local council's building control department before the work commences and after the work is finished. This is an expensive route to take because most councils are robbing b******s and for the most part send people out to inspect the work who don't know their arses from their elbows. A mate of mine used to take this route and they used to send a joiner out to look at the job!
Thankfully, all that BS is behind me now - we can't seem to go a month without some changes or modifications to the Regulations.