RCD unit /Consumer Board/Fuse box help!

[Deleted User]

Hi can anyone help me please? I'm having a new kitchen installed hopefully soon, the chap in IKEA said their installation guys will check my consumer board is up to scratch first. Well I know it's very old so I'm going to get it replaced in the mean time and have had some quotes (no one has come to look yet) but one chap has said it's £180 if I haven't got to change the circuits to the cooker etc? Can anyone give me any advice? Will that be all i'll need to do?
Thanks.

rach_k

What is the wiring in the rest of the house like?

I don't want to scare you with the cost but I'll share my story in case you're in a similar position! We're just having the kitchen done and our electrics are old. We had the option to replace the old RCD but the electrician warned us that new units are much more sensitive than old ones, so if there was anything slightly irregular elsewhere in the house nothing would work until that was fixed. At worst, it could have meant a full re-wire, which we're not in the position to do. The alternative, which we opted for, was to go for a separate RCD for the kitchen, so completely new wiring for the kitchen in a separate box coming off the main one for the rest of the house. That cost about £2,500 (SW London) (and caused a lot of dust, plus the cat went scrabbling round under the floorboards!) but it was worth it to get the kitchen nicely wired with everything in the right place for the new layout. As I said, I don't want to scare you with the cost and it may not apply to you if the rest of your house is up to scratch.

Ectophile

It's impossible to say without knowing the state of your existing wiring. A good electrician should carry out at least a basic safety test on each circuit before re-connecting it, and that may reveal some hidden faults.

Whether or not the old wiring should be re-connected may well depend on what it's made of. If it's PVC (anything since the mid-60's), then that seems to last pretty much forever. Anything older will be well past its safe life span.

[Deleted User]

I'm sure the old occupants did some rewiring in 2008, they didn't touch the kitchen though they gutted the rest of the house. Crikey ok. Got some people coming out in the next few weeks to have a look.

phil24_7

That price seems far too cheap in my opinion, and will likely lead to padding out or expensive extras on the day. The consumer unit will take up a fair whack of that price leaving little labour for fitting and testing etc.

George_Michael

Amongst other work carried out, I had a new consumer unit fitted at the end of last year and this was a split unit with 10 mcb's and an RCD.
The price for the parts alone was about £100 and it took the electrician about 5 hours from start to finish including testing) so I agree that £180 does seem far too low.

Heedtheadvice

Yes, double it as a starting point and then add some for contingency to locate and isolate faults if then found -not necessarily fix them!- and a bit more if it is a difficult job. Budget of £500 would sound more reasonable and hope to get some change if you are lucky.

phil24_7

Yup, agreed. £400-500 depending on location so long as there are no faults/problems.

xyz123

For what it's worth we had same situation to years ago. Ended up getting a new consumer unit with dedicated kitchen circuit , complete new wiring for kitchen and few other things for around £800 I NW London.