Can a consumer unit go outside?

R&C

We are in the process of buying a house that has the consumer unit and the electricity meter half way up the living room wall. It is an outside wall.

The electrics are old and we need to rewire. We would like to move the meter but we're unsure where would be best to move it to!

I know the meter could be moved directly onto the opposite side of the wall making it outdoors, but can the consumer unit go outdoors too?

I have contacted southern electric for a quote to move the meter and i have to provide a sketch, don't want them to quote me for moving it outside if the consumer unit has to remain half way up my living room wall! Will get it moved to under the stairs if need be.

Thanks

Cknocker

A conventional consumer unit cannot go outside! If you could get one suitably rated or in a suitably rated enclosure there is probably no reason why it couldn't.

Regarding moving your meter, do you know if the service coming in is overhead or underground?

Can you not just run longer tails to a differen location?

Canucklehead

Good afternoon: useful info on consumer units available here or better yet, find qualified electrician here

HTH

Canucklehead

ic

I doubt it'd be much fun having to stagger out in the middle of the night in winter to switch back on the electrics after a blown bulb has tripped them.

chrislee765

I can quite understand why you dont want it in the middle of the lounge. I've seen CUs outside before.
Get it done, moved to where you want. No point in covering it up, you will never be happy with it. Get a spark in, ask his/her opinion.

Cknocker

Your meter tails can be up to 3m long.
The work involved in moving a meter can be pretty extensive, particularly if your service is underground.
Moving a consumer unit can be even more problematic as every circuit needs to be modified.
You can install a new "Sub Main" from a switched fuse in the meter cabinet to any point in the house.

R&C

Thanks for all your replies.

To be honest we could do with saving the money and not moving the meter (which by the way the service is underground ) but it just sits too high on the wall and as Chrislee says we'd never be happy with it. We will quite possibly build a cupboard here in the future but it would need to be very high to cover everything.

Am I right in thinking that the meter and consumer unit have to be 1.2 meters above floor level? I'm going to post a couple of pics so you can see what I'm getting at, the bottom two boxes house the meter I think, we are unsure what the 3rd box is for. The top box is the current fuse box. I would be happy enough to leave the meter where it is so long as the new consumer unit can be put on the wall next to it at the same height. Then it would be low enough to build a cupboard around it. Hope that makes sense!

R&C

Rosebery_2

As an alternative solution I think you could quite happily stick a box floor to ceiling round that little lot with an opening door to allow access to meter and consumer unit. Take the box from just to the right hand side of the window cill and right into the wall on the RHS. Disguise the bottom of the box with some additional skirting. Decorate rest to match remainder of room and you will hardly know it's there.

Just a thought.

Cheers

baldelectrician

I would be inclined to move the meter and the consumer unit under the stairs (or somewhere similar).

You will need an electricians advice and some info from the local electric supply company.
It may be prudent to wait until you have saved some money up. One of the consumer units is past its best - the uppermost one looks like an old Wylex one with a 60A isolator (too small for most houses nowadays)

You would have to upgrade the consumer unit and bring the bonding up to a standard also

You should use a competent person for the work, links below
In Scotland:
Individuals registered;
http://www.sbsa.gov.uk/register/ListAC.asp
Companies
http://www.sbsa.gov.uk/register/Sear...struction&ID=2
In England and Wales:
http://www.competentperson.co.uk

Cknocker

What I would do is extend the wall profile by about 200mm, you would never know its there.