On Tuesday, October 20, 2020 at 12:08:02 PM UTC+1, Chris Holmes wrote:
Hi All,

I know of 3 houses which have recently had additions to their Electrics....€¦..

In the case of our house our thoroughly useless and I suspect unqualified "sparky" insisted that the MCB for the lighting circuit he had extended must be put on the RCD side of the CU before he could sign off the jb and give us a certificate (he then failed to buy the necessary busbar to do this (I got my own electrician to swap all the lighting MCBs for RCBOs) and eventually got the certificate (The BCO said the only bit he was bothered about was the extractor fan in the bathroom).

My Brother's girlfriend had an outside security light fitted and the sparky said he couldn't do it unless she got a new CU and specified one (but the quote didn't detail whether it had a number or RCDs or RCBOs or what (I presume it must have had one or t'other).

My Brother then had a new kitchen and the suppliers insisted on fitting a new circuit or two (I assume they uprated the cooker circuit). He has also recently had a couple of outside lights replaced.

I was rather disappointed* to find that he still has his original CU (All MCBs and I can't spot even 1 RCD in the house).

I know that there is no (or was) no requirement for an older house to meet current regs (I suppose I may have just answered my own question there).

But it would it be the case that when professionals are involved, at least the circuits they work on / install should be RCD / RCBO protected.

*This is a man who believes that 3 way 13A block type adapters are dangerous and must never be used and wouldn't believe me that running a 4 way off a way was ok if the second only had a BT Home Hub, a Hive box and a DECT phone hanging off it. And has spent a fortune on windows, doors, a porch, a kitchen, etc, etc but won't update the CU unless he's held at gunpoint!

Anyways, to my question...€¦

Do any of the above scenarios mandate the fitting of RCDS / RCBOs?
When I bought this house it had fuse wires in a wooden box and ancient rubbery wiring.
My first move was to get an electrician to fit 3 beefy radials with a socket at the ends for electric heaters etc in the most used rooms.
They added a new consumer unit and a new earth spike, presumably they wanted nothing to do with the old wiring.
[george]