On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 16:36:29 -0000, Al Reynolds wrote:

"Wanderer" wrote in message
. ..
On 27 Oct 2003 14:33:51 GMT, wrote:

In uk.d-i-y, Al wrote:
I have a 30s house with some rubber-coated wiring.
Before replacing this, I'm going to put in a new consumer unit.
Before doing that, I'd like to ask a couple of questions.

My problem:
There is no consumer fuse - tails go straight from the supply cable to
the meter.
From the meter, the tails go to a small junction box (would this be a
"Henley" block?).
Tails then go from the junction box to the consumer unit.
My plan is to carefully remove the old consumer unit tails from the
live terminals using an insulated screwdriver, then fit new consumer
unit and new tails.

snip

Let me discourage you again from trying to keep this installation
struggling on: better to put up with a pain in the cash flow and
running with fewer, but safe, circuits for a while, than disturb the
old perished stuff which (from personal experience) starts to flake
off most worryingly when disturbed.

I'd second everything that Stefek has said. *If* you have old PBJ (poly
butyl jute) Lead-Ins and no main fuse, contact your local distribution
company and tell them what you think the arrangement is. They are
required by statute to have a suitable means of fusing to protect your
property in the event of a fault in the meter or the tails to and from
the meter. Make sure you tell them that in your opinion you think their
installation is unsafe and needs inspecting as soon as possible. They
will also replace the lead in cables at their expense if they don't meet
modern safety requirements.

The only catch with this is that they also have a mandate not to
connect a supply to a system they consider unsafe, which yours
almost certainly is.

It may have changed, but the wording was something like 'where they are
prima facie satisfied that a danger to the public exists'. Unless things
have changed significantly in the last 7 or 8 years, no leccy company
will be too anxious to disconnect a supply unless it really is
dangerous, and not just old.