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Swapping meter tails - no consumer fuse
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. One way of dealing with this is as follows:
(1) Install nice new consumer unit alongside.
(2) Install one 13A socket from the new consumer unit.
(3) Ask your supplier to come and make their supply safe,
connecting up to the new consumer unit.
They should now come and replace the dodgy setup, and
will probably upgrade the meter to a nice small one at the
same time. Depending on the electricity board they might
even fit a 100A isolator between the meter and the new
consumer unit. They will test your circuit to see if it is safe
(should be OK with only one 13A socket!), and off they go.
Now, you can run the old fusebox off a 40A circuit in the
new one (the other way round to what Stefek said). This
way all new circuits can come off the new CU as you fit
them, and eventually you just remove the old fuse box.
HTH,
Al
PS The 13A socket idea isn't mine - I read it on here a while ago.
I will raise my hand and say that this sounds practical legal sensible
and definitely the best solution IMHO.
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