Outdated electrics??

Risteard

Simonon77 said:

Section62 said:

Simonon77 said:

Risteard said:

Jonboy_1984 said:

Rewiring may well be the best option.

Yes, for an electrician... 

To the OP, yes it would definitely benefit from having a modern consumer unit fitted for added safety, but as long as the electrics are all working fine and safe then there is no reason to rewire the whole house. If you are planning on doing work on the house, need more sockets etc.. you can just update the wiring on rooms as and when needed. 

There are loads of older properties in the UK that haven't been rewired and are perfectly fine

I suspect where Risteard is coming from is that to achieve a compliant installation anyone is going to have to do rather more than just wire in a new consumer unit to replace the existing.

It is also questionable whether there would be "added safety" without carrying out a full rewire.  For example, with so few circuits then replacing the existing fuses with RCBO/RCD protection would create a new risk of a minor fault causing a disproportionate amount of the installation tripping out.  With (for example) lighting circuits tripping off, there is a risk of falls or other personal injury accidents which leaves the installation (overall) less "safe" than it currently is.  The circuits need sorting out and splitting appropriately - in accordance with the current regs... which in practical terms probably means a full rewire.

Risteard is an electrician, so he always tells people they need the maximum doing at a high price without taking into account their budgets.

We don't know the size of the property, so having a single lighting circuit may be perfectly adequate for now. If its a small 2 bed  then a single lighting circuit is quite common without the occupants constantly injuring themselves

Also looking at the current fuse box it looks like it has two ring mains for the sockets ( 2x 15A ) and a 30A possibly for a cooker. 

It would depend on how many sockets are in the property, but again, having 2 ring mains ( one for upstairs and one for downstairs ) is quite common, and saying a house needs a complete rewire just to be safer isn't true.

Not true at all. I carry out many electrical inspections and have no interest in exhaustive remedial works - but I have to call it as I see it. And in my opinion the installation in question (obviously taking account of the fact that I haven't attended the site) is likely to be at the end of its serviceable life.

markin

More like 20 years past it, Getting an EICR would be a waste of money, just budget £2.5 - 4K, or get a quote.

grumbler

Risteard said:

Simonon77 said:

Section62 said:

Simonon77 said:

Risteard said:

Jonboy_1984 said:

Rewiring may well be the best option.

Yes, for an electrician... 

To the OP, yes it would definitely benefit from having a modern consumer unit fitted for added safety, but as long as the electrics are all working fine and safe then there is no reason to rewire the whole house. If you are planning on doing work on the house, need more sockets etc.. you can just update the wiring on rooms as and when needed. 

There are loads of older properties in the UK that haven't been rewired and are perfectly fine

I suspect where Risteard is coming from is that to achieve a compliant installation anyone is going to have to do rather more than just wire in a new consumer unit to replace the existing.

It is also questionable whether there would be "added safety" without carrying out a full rewire.  For example, with so few circuits then replacing the existing fuses with RCBO/RCD protection would create a new risk of a minor fault causing a disproportionate amount of the installation tripping out.  With (for example) lighting circuits tripping off, there is a risk of falls or other personal injury accidents which leaves the installation (overall) less "safe" than it currently is.  The circuits need sorting out and splitting appropriately - in accordance with the current regs... which in practical terms probably means a full rewire.

Risteard is an electrician, so he always tells people they need the maximum doing at a high price without taking into account their budgets.

We don't know the size of the property, so having a single lighting circuit may be perfectly adequate for now. If its a small 2 bed  then a single lighting circuit is quite common without the occupants constantly injuring themselves

Also looking at the current fuse box it looks like it has two ring mains for the sockets ( 2x 15A ) and a 30A possibly for a cooker. 

It would depend on how many sockets are in the property, but again, having 2 ring mains ( one for upstairs and one for downstairs ) is quite common, and saying a house needs a complete rewire just to be safer isn't true.

at the end of its serviceable life.

markin said:

 just budget £2.5 - 4K,

Serviceable life of what? There is no anything to 'service'.

Yes the fittings we see in the photos need modernisation, but this is nowhere near 4K. Everything else is guesswork.

Section62

grumbler said:

Risteard said:

Simonon77 said:

Section62 said:

Simonon77 said:

Risteard said:

Jonboy_1984 said:

Rewiring may well be the best option.

Yes, for an electrician... 

To the OP, yes it would definitely benefit from having a modern consumer unit fitted for added safety, but as long as the electrics are all working fine and safe then there is no reason to rewire the whole house. If you are planning on doing work on the house, need more sockets etc.. you can just update the wiring on rooms as and when needed. 

There are loads of older properties in the UK that haven't been rewired and are perfectly fine

I suspect where Risteard is coming from is that to achieve a compliant installation anyone is going to have to do rather more than just wire in a new consumer unit to replace the existing.

It is also questionable whether there would be "added safety" without carrying out a full rewire.  For example, with so few circuits then replacing the existing fuses with RCBO/RCD protection would create a new risk of a minor fault causing a disproportionate amount of the installation tripping out.  With (for example) lighting circuits tripping off, there is a risk of falls or other personal injury accidents which leaves the installation (overall) less "safe" than it currently is.  The circuits need sorting out and splitting appropriately - in accordance with the current regs... which in practical terms probably means a full rewire.

Risteard is an electrician, so he always tells people they need the maximum doing at a high price without taking into account their budgets.

We don't know the size of the property, so having a single lighting circuit may be perfectly adequate for now. If its a small 2 bed  then a single lighting circuit is quite common without the occupants constantly injuring themselves

Also looking at the current fuse box it looks like it has two ring mains for the sockets ( 2x 15A ) and a 30A possibly for a cooker. 

It would depend on how many sockets are in the property, but again, having 2 ring mains ( one for upstairs and one for downstairs ) is quite common, and saying a house needs a complete rewire just to be safer isn't true.

at the end of its serviceable life.

Serviceable life of what? There is no anything to 'service'.

Serviceable life isn't about things needing to be serviced, but instead the length of time the thing can provide economic (and safe) service to the user.

The electrical installation provides a service to the occupier of the property.  It can be patched up and repaired (Trigger's broom) but at some point the economic cost of repairs will exceed the cost of total replacement.

'Serviceable life' differentiates the life it makes sense to use something for vs the total possible life it could have.

Robin9

That set up looks like my parents house when it was wired in 1954. The requirements then were really very basic -  a single socket on the landing, a cooker circuit, single sockets in the downstairs rooms. ....... 

I wonder how the OP's installation has grown.

Time to start again

PS I think the Siemens service termination is metal clad

FreeBear

Risteard said:

FreeBear said:

silvercar said: It shouldn't take much persuasion for the supplier to swap the meter out for a  smart meter, at which point they may notify the DNO that  the Siemens unit needs looking at (I haven't got a clue, but the brown gunky stuff doesn't look too good).

an isolator ... is needed if you ever get an electric vehicle charging point.

No it isn't.

SSE, Eon, and others would disagree. Whilst an isolator may not be a requirement in N.I. it is "best practice" in the rest of the UK and helps to keep the electrician safe whilst installing an EV charging point.

https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/blog/purchasing-an-electric-car-home-charger

https://www.eonenergy.com/electric-vehicle-charging/evsupport.html

https://www.chargedev.co.uk/at-home/domestic-installation-process/isolation-switch/

CSI_Yorkshire

FreeBear said:

Risteard said:

FreeBear said:

silvercar said: It shouldn't take much persuasion for the supplier to swap the meter out for a  smart meter, at which point they may notify the DNO that  the Siemens unit needs looking at (I haven't got a clue, but the brown gunky stuff doesn't look too good).

an isolator ... is needed if you ever get an electric vehicle charging point.

No it isn't.

SSE, Eon, and others would disagree. Whilst an isolator may not be a requirement in N.I. it is "best practice" in the rest of the UK and helps to keep the electrician safe whilst installing an EV charging point.

https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/blog/purchasing-an-electric-car-home-charger

https://www.eonenergy.com/electric-vehicle-charging/evsupport.html

https://www.chargedev.co.uk/at-home/domestic-installation-process/isolation-switch/

Best practice - so not a requirement then.

dil1976

FreeBear said:

Risteard said:

FreeBear said:

silvercar said: It shouldn't take much persuasion for the supplier to swap the meter out for a  smart meter, at which point they may notify the DNO that  the Siemens unit needs looking at (I haven't got a clue, but the brown gunky stuff doesn't look too good).

an isolator ... is needed if you ever get an electric vehicle charging point.

No it isn't.

SSE, Eon, and others would disagree. Whilst an isolator may not be a requirement in N.I. it is "best practice" in the rest of the UK and helps to keep the electrician safe whilst installing an EV charging point.

https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/blog/purchasing-an-electric-car-home-charger

https://www.eonenergy.com/electric-vehicle-charging/evsupport.html

https://www.chargedev.co.uk/at-home/domestic-installation-process/isolation-switch/

You do realise virtually all distribution boards have a main switch which acts as a isolator which would comply with that requirement. Even pulling the main fuse can deemed to be an isolator so again that complies, so no requirement for further isolators to be fitted anywhere for a EV charger.

silvercar

Electrics don’t fail just because a house changes hands. If the current owners have been living in the property then there is a very high probability that it’s all workable.

Risteard

silvercar said:

Electrics don’t fail just because a house changes hands. If the current owners have been living in the property then there is a very high probability that it’s all workable.

Functioning and safe are completely different things.