I am in the process of renovating a house and intend to re-wire the whole
building & install a new consumer unit. Fixed appliances likely to be
installed include an electric cooker, boiler, water softener, waste
disposal, central heating pump, shower pump, fire alarms, security sensors.
There will also be an outside socket in the garden shed.

The house has three floors and an extension. I want to choose a CU that
gives me enough MCB/RCBO slots for all the circuits, plus some spare for the
future.

I suspect that my two areas of ignorance (below) have been discussed at
length on this newsgroup, although I can't find any information at
http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/electrical.html. So I wonder if someone could
kindly point me to threads or website links that cover the following:

A. The typical electrical circuits to be found in a house (e.g. 2 x ring
mains, 2 x lighting, 1 x cooker etc...). I want to find a list of appliances
that would have their own circuit protection.

B. The relative merits of RCDs and RCBOs.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.