Best Consumer unit for home

James · Nov 1, 2023

I try to keep out of Domestic work but I have a problem at home.

Currently I have a wylex fuse board with re-wire fuses.
they are great because nuisance tripping never happens!!

however, it is an overhead TT supply and this is covered by a 30mA non delay rcd that covers the whole house.
this evening the rcd tripped and the wife got mad at me.
because in her mind being married to an electrician means that our electricity should be of a better quality than everybody else's and one stupid trip switch shouldn't turn everything off.

now no amount of waffle and bull faeces including flux capacitor integration into a 100 year old house is going to persuade her that it cant be done so I am now sadly looking into doing a job that is 10 years overdue.

If I am going to do it, I am going to do it properly so what are your recommendations for domestic consumer units?
may as well have all the mod cons in it SPD, RCBO, time delay rcd incomer.
are there any other bells, whistles or collections of random letters i should be thinking about?

might need a pen fault detector as i think in future they may upgrade the supply and i have a car charger.

nicebutdim · Nov 4, 2023

mainline said:
Apparently, Hager are only compatible for metal consumer units.

That's only for about the last 7 years.

I thought it went back much farther in time.

Like Starbreaker

mainline · Nov 4, 2023

baldelectrician said:
I always use Hager, however my confidence in them has been dented with the AFDD woes

I agree I saw a Hager afdd being tested, and it did absolutely nothing, other makes tripped fine.

Timbo · Nov 4, 2023

SBS consumer units, double pole rcbo's, twin busbar, no flying neutral leads. SPD available.

westward10 · Nov 4, 2023

Is that fitted or on your couch.

Diddy · Nov 4, 2023

Timbo said:
SBS consumer units, double pole rcbo's, twin busbar, no flying neutral leads. SPD available.

That guy who started this company was years ahead of the game. Quality products.

nicebutdim · Nov 4, 2023

Diddy said:
That guy who started this company was years ahead of the game. Quality products.

They have an excellent reputation, but I can't help wondering about the future availability of components. While I like the idea of trade only sales, their business model doesn't lend itself to volume sales or widespread availability.

I've never seen an SBS board in the flesh and, if I found myself faced with adding a circuit to one, would be less than pleased with the hoops that have to be jumped through in order to add a new circuit. No chance of local availbility, the need to open an account to buy components and a requirement to prove competence in order to do so. I'd have to think long and hard about fitting an SBS board for a customer, if future simple works were to be made unnecessarily arduous due to mail order only availability and the possibility of no longer being available if the owner were to retire without finding a buyer for the business.

timhoward · Nov 5, 2023

Diddy said:
That guy who started this company was years ahead of the game. Quality products.

I’ve fitted two. There’s lots I like about them. CPC bar could have more capacity for bonding. And I wish they didn’t use self drilling / tapping screws to hold din rail on.

pc1966 · Nov 5, 2023

I went with Wylex for my rewirable home board's replacement (though it has been upgraded with plug-in breakers 25 year before...) and a friend's dual-CU problem home, and that was largely due to:

Known brand, even if they have proven dumb on compatibility many times
Spare readily available
SPD that has no need for separate OCPD
DP switching RCBOs
Quality seems OK

For work though it has been Hager TPN stuff and the lack of DP switching RCBO irks me, but I do very little in either case.

If your supply is TT then going with a 100mA delay incomer and DP switching RCBOs would seem the best plan. Some Wylex board types don't support that (as I found out recently) but I think the domestic ones with the gravity-dropping covers do have that option, but those are limited in load, think it is 50A MCB and 40A compatible RCBO from memory.

As TT you don't need open PEN stuff for any EV, though you might get a TN-C-S supply if 3P upgrade offered for that?

Timbo · Nov 8, 2023

nicebutdim said:
They have an excellent reputation, but I can't help wondering about the future availability of components. While I like the idea of trade only sales, their business model doesn't lend itself to volume sales or widespread availability.

I've never seen an SBS board in the flesh and, if I found myself faced with adding a circuit to one, would be less than pleased with the hoops that have to be jumped through in order to add a new circuit. No chance of local availbility, the need to open an account to buy components and a requirement to prove competence in order to do so. I'd have to think long and hard about fitting an SBS board for a customer, if future simple works were to be made unnecessarily arduous due to mail order only availability and the possibility of no longer being available if the owner were to retire without finding a buyer for the business.

I believe (don't hold me to it) that it is LVE stuff.

oscar21 · Nov 9, 2023

Not sure why people are rating the Wylex and Crabtree stuff, the last couple of boards from them I have fitted have been awful. The metal they are made out of it more like tin foil but the worst part about them by far is you can't take the din rail out of them. It makes life so much easier if you can get all the gubbins out of the box to fix it and dress the cables first.

nicebutdim · Nov 9, 2023

oscar21 said:
Not sure why people are rating the Wylex and Crabtree stuff, the last couple of boards from them I have fitted have been awful. The metal they are made out of it more like tin foil but the worst part about them by far is you can't take the din rail out of them. It makes life so much easier if you can get all the gubbins out of the box to fix it and dress the cables first.

Can't say much for wylex, but I rate Crabtree for reasons already stated. Again I can't post much about wylex, but any starbreaker board I've fitted didn't the impression of being flimsy - quite the opposite when drilling as they've been made from considerably thicker sheet steel than many competitors.

Out of curiosity, when did you last fit a starbreaker board? Specifically starbreaker and not wylex.

pc1966 · Nov 9, 2023

oscar21 said:
Not sure why people are rating the Wylex and Crabtree stuff, the last couple of boards from them I have fitted have been awful. The metal they are made out of it more like tin foil but the worst part about them by far is you can't take the

What have you found that is cheap-ish and good?

oscar21 said:
din rail out of them. It makes life so much easier if you can get all the gubbins out of the box to fix it and dress the cables first.

The DIN rail assembly is fairly easy to remove, there are two screws and a key-hole style of fitting so you can loosen them, lift and pull-forward the DIN rain and its out, reverse for fitting. Just don't loosen screws too far or you have to find them again...

oscar21 · Nov 9, 2023

Do they still make the starbreaker board, thats the one with the plug in MCB's isn't it. All I know is the last Crabtree board I fitted was identical to the Wylex one, even the MCB's had the same style din clip on them.

oscar21 · Nov 9, 2023

pc1966 said:
What have you found that is cheap-ish and good?

The DIN rail assembly is fairly easy to remove, there are two screws and a key-hole style of fitting so you can loosen them, lift and pull-forward the DIN rain and its out, reverse for fitting. Just don't loosen screws too far or you have to find them again...

I like the Fusebox boards and would fit them if I got to choose, my mate reckons the newest Chint board he fitted the other week was the best he's used in a while, plenty of space and all the MCB's line up perfectly. As for the din rail in the new Wylex boards, they are riveted in and there is now way of removing them. Its a pain in the arse if you are fitting a dual RCD on as you have to remove all the tails to get them out of the way instead of removing them all in one go. Here is what I mean about the din rail. (Crabtree and Wylex are the same with this model)

[ElectriciansForums.net] Best Consumer unit for home

You probably could get it out if you bent the case enough but its not designed to be removed really.

O/T but I'm stuck with that board now, I was in a rush and the spec said Crabtree board so I found a Toolstation that had one in stock and bought it, it wan't until I was halfway through fitting it that I realised it had AC RCD's in it, I wasn't even aware they still sold that version. There was no way I was uninstalling it all and a new type A board was the same price as separate RCD's so I just got one of them, swapped the RCD's over and carried on. But now I'm stuck with something I cant take back as all the model labels and box are wrong. What can I do with it.

nicebutdim · Nov 9, 2023

oscar21 said:
Do they still make the starbreaker board, thats the one with the plug in MCB's isn't it. All I know is the last Crabtree board I fitted was identical to the Wylex one, even the MCB's had the same style din clip on them.

They do and I'd assumed that's what you were referring to as it's what people had recommended.

I also quite like fusebox, but their enclosures don't come close to the quality of starbreaker. More than a few people have complained about fitting covers on fusebox boards - it's not a problem I've encountered, but I can see how this could happen, due to flex in the enclosure, as they aren't pressed from particularly heavy steel.

pc1966 · Nov 9, 2023

oscar21 said:
I like the Fusebox boards and would fit them if I got to choose, my mate reckons the newest Chint board he fitted the other week was the best he's used in a while, plenty of space and all the MCB's line up perfectly. As for the din rail in

Thanks for that suggestion.

oscar21 said:
the new Wylex boards, they are riveted in and there is now way of removing them. Its a pain in the arse if you are fitting a dual RCD on as you have to remove all the tails to get them out of the way instead of removing them all in one go. Here is what I mean about the din rail. (Crabtree and Wylex are the same with this model)

OK that is not what I have used, here is the NHSPN00111L recently done:

And from a year or two back the NM606FLEXS (suspect that part is changed as now single-module SPD):

oscar21 · Nov 9, 2023

Yes they were much better and 10 times better quality, not only did the din rail come out but the whole backing plate did as well so it all came out as one solid block.

ipf · Nov 9, 2023

oscar21 said:
Yes they were much better and 10 times better quality, not only did the din rail come out but the whole backing plate did as well so it all came out as one solid block.

I did one and didn't know about the changes.......real pain in the arse. I mentioned it a while back.

nicebutdim · Nov 9, 2023

Unless they've changed in the last few months, DIN rail in Starbreaker boards is still removed with two screws.

I'm not sure why, but a lot of people consider Wylex and Crabtree one and the same and I find it a bit odd considering the former has ensured years of backward compatibility, while the latter changes designs more often than most sparks change their underwear. They're both Electrium brands and seem to share some technology (thinking early development of SP+N RCBO and single module AFDD), but that's where the similarities end.

oscar21 · Nov 9, 2023

nicebutdim said:
Unless they've changed in the last few months, DIN rail in Starbreaker boards is still removed with two screws.

I'm not sure why, but a lot of people consider Wylex and Crabtree one and the same and I find it a bit odd considering the former has ensured years of backward compatibility, while the latter changes designs more often than most sparks change their underwear. They're both Electrium brands and seem to share some technology (thinking early development of SP+N RCBO and single module AFDD), but that's where the similarities end.

Really?

https://www.NoLinkingToThis/p/wylex-16a-sp-type-b-mcb/489fr

https://www.NoLinkingToThis/p/crabtree-loadstar-16a-sp-type-b-mcb/189jt

https://www.NoLinkingToThis/p/wylex-dp-type-2-miniature-surge-protection-device-40ka/618vf

https://www.NoLinkingToThis/p/crabt...-miniature-surge-protection-device-40ka/174vf

https://www.NoLinkingToThis/p/crabtree-starbreaker-80a-30ma-dp-type-a-rccb/303vf

https://www.NoLinkingToThis/p/wylex-80a-30ma-dp-type-a-rcd/384hv

nicebutdim · Nov 9, 2023

oscar21 said:
Really?

https://www.NoLinkingToThis/p/wylex-16a-sp-type-b-mcb/489fr
https://www.NoLinkingToThis/p/crabtree-loadstar-16a-sp-type-b-mcb/189jt

https://www.NoLinkingToThis/p/wylex-dp-type-2-miniature-surge-protection-device-40ka/618vf
https://www.NoLinkingToThis/p/crabt...-miniature-surge-protection-device-40ka/174vf

https://www.NoLinkingToThis/p/crabtree-starbreaker-80a-30ma-dp-type-a-rccb/303vf
https://www.NoLinkingToThis/p/wylex-80a-30ma-dp-type-a-rcd/384hv

I'm able to see the similarities, yet am also aware of the fact that Wylex devices more often than not aren't compatible with their own boards.

The Starbreaker devices you link will fit boards going back a considerable number of years.

For obvious reasons Wylex and Starbreaker are incompatible, no matter how much bashing or cutting from the most determined spark.

oscar21 · Nov 9, 2023

I know, I couldn't find decent pictures of the loadstar stuff but its identical to the wylex stuff, even the actual consumer units are identical.

nicebutdim · Nov 9, 2023

oscar21 said:
I know, I couldn't find decent pictures of the loadstar stuff but its identical to the wylex stuff, even the actual consumer units are identical.

Loadstar and Starbreaker are both identical to current Wylex products?

Seems unlikely, but I only deal with Loadstar as and when I come across it. I have very little knowledge of the Loadstar range. In general Fusebox is what I use on the basis of a combination of price, availability and devices- Starbreaker is comparatively expensive and not widely available over here, but I prefer it where quality and devices are concerned.

oscar21 · Nov 9, 2023

I think so, here is the Crabtree CU I have with the non removable bus bar. (forget about the axiom SPD, thats another story).

Here is the latest Wylex unit

nicebutdim · Nov 9, 2023

oscar21 said:
I think so, here is the Crabtree CU I have with the non removable bus bar. (forget about the axiom SPD, thats another story).

View attachment 111508

Here is the latest Wylex unit

View attachment 111509

So where does Starbreaker fit into all of this?

Best Consumer unit for home

James

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nicebutdim

mainline

Timbo

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Attachments

westward10

Diddy

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nicebutdim

timhoward

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pc1966

Timbo

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oscar21

nicebutdim

pc1966

oscar21

oscar21

nicebutdim

pc1966

oscar21

ipf

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nicebutdim

oscar21

nicebutdim

oscar21

nicebutdim

oscar21

nicebutdim

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