Consumer unit...is this safe?

andrew-b

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premkit

tails are bad, they need cutting back. the smoke alarms need to be on there own dedicated supply on a separate side of the board so the RCD wont cut the power to the alarm.
if a fault develops when you are asleep the rcd trips everything, this is why it has to be separate.

ormus

its certainly not best practice. but i doubt its a major problem.
maybe the tails can be pushed further into the terminals?

Owain_Moneysaver

Whole installation is careless. Cables are badly routed, exposed copper is dangerous, am I right in thinking 2 rings but only 1 lighting circuit? No warning label that colour codes to two different versions of the regulations are in use was added when the cooker was installed in brown/blue, etc etc.

Whole-house RCD was deprecated under 16th edition regs, and is prohibited under 17th edition, so the installation is either pre c. 1991 or costs were cut using a 15th edition style board.

My preference is for mains powered, battery back up smoke alarms on the lighting circuit. Mains failure is then noticeable quickly, and harder to disconnect the alarm circuit to disable 'nuisance' alarms and leave it switched off.

Unless you rewire a dedicated circuit in special cable the circuit will have to be RCD protected.

luap2411

Hi Andrew

I know these CU quite well, reckon this must be getting on for at least 15 years old now.

Couple of things to bear in mind firstly I agree tails are not great, bad workmanship, but not a disaster.

Agree with other poster cabling is busy, but not much space in these so again not great but not a disaster.

Noticed a mix of three types of MCB, this is OK, but some are Type C. You have an incoming RCD so disconnection times would be OK, but again not great for a residential installation.

As the RCD is the incoming device not sure how you would bypass it for a SA circuit, as suggested by another poster. As you don't seem to have any extra ways you could ad a small CU underneath to fit an MCB for the SA's. Hager do a terminal block connector that will couple the busbars between the two CU's. But you only have a 63A RCD incomer, the SA's won't add much load, but again it's not great.

Really all things considered might be worth calling in a pro and think about having a new consumer unit. The layouts have changed quite a bit in the last 15 years, you would fix all the problems in one, and have improved safety and continuity.

latecomer

Alternatively put the cover back on the consumer unit and buy some battery powered smoke alarms.

Owain_Moneysaver

andrew-b wrote: »

When you say routed better do you mean inside or outside the CU? Inside yep it's spaghetti but outside it's routed like that because of shelving above (it's in the kitchen larder) plus concrete floors so all the wiring goes via loft

Both. Here is what a picture of an untidy, and a tidy (below), consumer unit look like. (The tidy one is missing busbar cover.)



Lack of space is all the more reason to do the job tidy.

as for outside, cable clips cost nothing and a few ft of trunking costs next to nothing.

andrew-b wrote: »

But the meter has a label on the side saying "31/01/2006". The meter tails themselves are red and black and the live ones have been taped with brown insulation tape where they enter and leave the meter. So that must mean the tails have been fitted to the consumer unit like that since the 90s rewire.

Probably the meter was swapped.