Improving electrical safety without a full rewire

dominoman

Ok thanks. So given that my consumer unit is very old (from the early 1970s I would guess) and I need to replace it, should I just go for that.

No point me spending £200 on a EICR if I am going to get one as part of the CU installation?

TheCyclingProgrammer

dominoman wrote: »

OK great. I'll get an EICR done then and will take it from there.

How much should I be paying for an EICR roughly? It's a 4 bedroom semi detached, built 1910.

I paid about £150 in the south east for similar (4 bed, 1930s build). That might have been ex. VAT.

cyclonebri1

Risteard wrote: »

Here it would be a minimum of £150. For a four bedroom house in London it will be more. It will not be less than £200, nor should it be if it is of quality.

£75 is a complete and utter nonsense.

In your mind, for me it's the target,

cyclonebri1

TheCyclingProgrammer wrote: »

I paid about £150 in the south east for similar (4 bed, 1930s build). That might have been ex. VAT.

Yes, but you could half that up here, if all our sparks weren't down your way creaming you, (without offence)

Risteard

dominoman wrote: »

Ok thanks. So given that my consumer unit is very old (from the early 1970s I would guess) and I need to replace it, should I just go for that.

No point me spending £200 on a EICR if I am going to get one as part of the CU installation?

You shouldn't just replace the distribution board as you don't know what the condition of the installation actually is. And an Electrical Installation Condition Report will NOT be provided as part of the replacement of a distribution board - it is a separate job in its own right.

Replacing a distribution board without rectifying dangerous defects in the installation does not make it safer. You need a competent Electrician to carry out periodic inspection and testing of the installation, where the full facts will be detailed on an Electrical Installation Condition Report.

Risteard

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Yes, but you could half that up here, if all our sparks weren't down your way creaming you, (without offence)

This is a depressed area with very low pay and an Electrical Installation Condition Report of an average house would cost £150, so frankly no £75 Report will be of any merit whatsoever.

dominoman

I asked 3 electricians to quote for a new Consumer Unit yesterday.

Quotes were:
1. 420 + VAT
2. 500, no VAT
3. 350 +VAT for the board and 150 + VAT for condition report (NIC EIC)

Heedtheadvice

...this is only my opinion......but
I would suggest get a report first. That way you know the worst case and what really ought to be done and can plan accordingly.
Consider installing a new consumer unit first....full of good new trips that go off when it is installed. You have a faulty system and that needs investigating and rectifying or you might be left with no power till the fix. That will add extra cost and time so the quotes may then be very optimistic compared to actual cost. Do they cover fault finding and rectification? Maybe it is no problem having no powers till the sparks can come back again?
Having the report first the work can be better planned and that should reduce both cost and time.

A further suggestion is to find in detail what each of your consumer unit quotes covers. They can range from cheap and poor units with several overload switches and just one leakage trip to larger units of quality fully loaded with combined overload/leakage trips (mcbo) for all circuits. The latter is probably the best but less frequently installed solution as comes at a higher cost.

Risteard

Heedtheadvice wrote: »

...this is only my opinion......but
I would suggest get a report first.

It's not just your opinion - it is the only correct course of action to be taken.

Silver-Surfer_2

Risteard wrote: »

This is a depressed area with very low pay and an Electrical Installation Condition Report of an average house would cost £150, so frankly no £75 Report will be of any merit whatsoever.

Once you're in possession of a report who knows how much you paid for it?