eletrical report what does it mean

meercatsunited

Hi hope you can help me understand this. :T

We have a little terraced house and had the wiring checked to obtain a certificate and the following is whats in the report which I am waiting for the agent to send me.

New a new fuse box..........2 years ago we had trip switches fitted to the old fuse box and was told by another electrician that these do the same thing as the new fuse box and a new fuse box was a waste of money.

The bonding needs upgrading to the meters.......havent a clue what this is all about

The main tails and earth cable needs upgrading.......the earth cable has already been upgraded 2 years ago. but what are the main tails


And is any of this dangerous or am I being conned into spending £350 because thats what they have quoted. :eek:
thanks

paulpud

The mains tails and main earth are the cables that connect your fuseboard to the electricity meter and main earth terminal. The tails are normally 25mm and the main earth 16mm, although these can be reduced in size depending on the size of the supply fuse.

The bonding to the meters sounds like your main equipotential bonding. This is an earth wire that runs from your main earth position to your mains water incoming supply and your incoming gas supply. In domestic premises this is almost always 10mm c.s.a.

Not so sure about your fuseboard. If it is modern and fitted with minature circuit breakers (trip switches) I can only assume that there is no RCD protection on the socket outlets. It is possible to provide RCD protection without changing the fuseboard, but it is usually preferable to fit a consumer unit that incorporates integral RCDs.

If my assumptions are correct then 350 quid doesn't sound a bad price. Your electrical installation might not be dangerous as such, but the potential for danger is massively reduced by having this work done.