Andrew Gabriel wrote


A heads-up that Amendment 3 to the wiring regs (due in January) will require
home consumer units to be made of a non-combustable material (i.e. metal),
or to be enclosed in a non-combustable enclosure. This follows a five fold
increase in 5 years of house fires starting in plastic consumer units,
often under the stairs, which are usually the only escape route. This
applies to any other switchgear too, not just the CU.

The new requirement will be delayed until January 2016, to allow
manufacturers time to produce metal consumer units in sufficient numbers.

Pleased to say I always throught the thermosoftening plastic CU's were a
liability and I have fitted commercial metal ones when I've replaced CU's
over the last ~15 years.


I had my lecci meter changed today. The electrician had come from a
house where he he'd refused to change the meter. He'd looked at the
circuits connected to it and discovered the T&E were lead sheathed. It
appeared much of the house was the same.