Owning your own home

Seems higher than usual for a 1 bed but not by much.

A full EICR should include checking the condition of the electrical outlets, switches, lighting etc. including polarity checks. In some cases the checks can be 'samples'. The reason some landlords are paying less can be because they have had a full EICR and nothing has been changed since so it's easier to check a few sockets and check the wiring isn't degrading.

What's interesting is they've offered you a dual rcd board, that tech is at the end of it's cycle now and the new style will be all rcbo's. More convenient for the end user.

Legend.

I've probably previously pondered paying someone to install proper plugs on the sly in my bathroom but I never got around to it. Instead I run a fucking extension lead the length of the hall in there - super fucking safe! Idiot rule.

"We could upgrade the electrical protection for the two circuits that used to feed the off peak supplies. These are the underfloor heating in the lounge and the storage heater spur in the bedroom. These two circuits will be rerouted to the existing consumer unit and protected with two new RCBOs, these are combined circuit breaker and residual current device."

Sounds like he's giving me the cheaper option of keeping the current consumer unit and adding RCBOs for the big stuff rather than swapping the whole unit out?

Yes, we had the same, constant tripping hazard and we ripped out one of the sockets in the hall that way. Now I just run a short extension from the plug behind the washing machine and have 2 "sockets" on top of the washing machine that way.
I did get shaver sockets installed though so that at least covers the toothbrush chargers.

It's a safety issue not a scheme to improve electricians income or support professional bodies. Plenty of slum landlords had been letting their tenants live with dangerous wiring.

The fire service were right to insist on changing back to metal boxes, it was a big proportion of household fires starting from arcing in plastic boxes and people store all kinds of flammable materials under the stairs, so yes it was stopping people being able to get down the stairs to safety. The term for the test is EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report), the certificate can be referred to as a NICEIC.

You do not have to change the consumer unit in every case. Here's an explainer :- https://youtu.be/08HJtW5ZwsY

There is no reason why NAPIT registered electricians should be cheaper than NICEIC and the difference in price for registration is not that big when you factor it over a year.

I did get shaver sockets installed

That would help in some ways but I use a proper shaver so need 240V. I haven't done it in 10 years so I'm unlikely to bother now. But I will continue to whinge about the stupidity of the rules here.

Sounds like he's giving me the cheaper option of keeping the current consumer unit and adding RCBOs for the big stuff rather than swapping the whole unit out?

Yes, just interesting that he didn't offer all RCBO's in the new consumer unit route. Personally I would have all an all RCBO setup if I was putting in a new consumer unit. They are quite a bit more expensive though.

I guess the sensible approach is to do an EICR and then fix the recommendations and if a new consumer unit is required then sort that out. I don't really want to install something that's going to be out of spec in a few years though (buy cheap, buy twice)

I think they've been trying to phase in RCBO's for a long time. It's obviously more convenient if the RCD only trips on the circuit it's protecting rather than leaving you in the dark because the kettle has some water in the base. As a landlord it buys you time if you have a fault on one circuit but you can work around it for a couple of days rather than having to get someone out immediately to restore power to half the property.

I don't know the difference but we have different circuits for different stuff. Why would an RCD tripping on the underfloor mess with the lights or whatever? What do RCBOs do - turn off everything?

An RCD tripping will take out any circuits connected to it, RCBO will only trip the circuit causing the issue.

yeah, I was a bit careless with my language there. It's a pretty sensible move to require them for rented properties, and I think more people should get them when buying houses too. It's the creep on the requirements I'm slightly less convinced about - I think it's easy for a committee to make new requirements which do increase safety, but it seems like relatively small gains from a pretty high baseline. But maybe I'm just being grumpy because I'm having to spend so much :)

And yes, I agree about plastic consumer units too :) I just don't think they should have been given more time to continue selling them....

In our case we ended up replacing them, in one case as we were running out of space in it once we'd put in the different type RCDs/SPDs that were required, and in another case because the manufacturer is no longer around and we can't get the right bits for it.

But don't you have an RCD per circuit? Because we only have RCDs on two and the rest are without (I think)

Cheers bud, managed to get something sorted in the meantime though 👍

on the 'old' system, which we have currently, you have a breaker on each circuit (which protects against too much current being drawn). The two RCDs are then protecting half of the circuits each, so if there is a fault where more current goes out than back in on any of those circuits the RCD trips. Normally you get it laid out something like this in the consumer unit: RCD..[a set of breakers] RCD [a set of breakers]

This means if the RCD trips all the circuits connected off it wont work. The 'new' style is to have the RCD and breaker combined for each circuit (RCBO) so only one circuit trips for a fault.

It's not absolutely necessary to pass an EICR, you can just upgrade the two RCDs (if there's space in the consumer unit) if they're not the type that is now required.

Ah, I wrongly assumed the RCDs were only for the circuit they were on, not like a whole bank.

I mean, given how much luck I've had with the wiring in this place it wouldn't surprise me if either or both were true.

Oh look, I found a pic. Looks like we already have an RCBO for something.

I think that's what he was suggesting - there's some blank panels so I reckon he was going to try and get it up to spec as well as he could without having to get a whole new consumer unit.

ie. move the two circuits in the older brown box to the existing CU

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ha, we have those same stickers, although we have an extra one with a bonus spelling mistake that doesn't fill me with confidence

I'm no electrician, but that does look like a bit untidy! So all of the green ones (shower, sockets and cooker) are protected by the RCD with the blue switch, the lighting gets a RCBO and the water heater just gets a breaker.

We spent a year without heating because the power company didn't reconnect the fucking heater wires when they put in the deal-tariff meter. We just assumed the heating was fucked. Eventually got the sparky over and he's like "heater seems fine... let me look at the... wtf?!"

He wrote us a letter to chase compensation from them but I left that supplier and didn't bother chasing.

I'm tough and stupid though so can live with lots of dumb shit but if we rent it out...

I agree about the creeping regulations and the anoraks who come up with them. ElF and SAftEy gone gone mad innit!

I think it's fair to say they never do too little to protect the end user from their ivory tower. The reality on the ground is there are still a lot of dangerous installations or installations that have small dangers like the nicked live wire I found with my finger this week!

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/137578070

"Requires some modernisation"

EPG rating G...... Wonder how they worked that out?

Tyron Ash are proud to present this rare and unique site set within approximately 3 acres of land .
Name suits the listing

Any thoughts on the likelihood of this hacked away damp proof course (to put the fence up) being the cause of this damp on the other side of the wall?

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