Loss of power in Kitchen + MI

richardg · May 10, 2013

Afternoon Gentleman. I received a call yesterday to a 1960s Flat due to a loss of power in half the kitchen. Upon inspecting the wiring I found a mixture of MI and PVC/PVC linked and run with no logic or system. The dead section of the kitchen(sockets + cooker + extractor fan) showed a dead short between L-N-E. After a little mining the owner mentioned they had no power for the last two years! I believe the conductors are damaged at one point especially when I found out the cooker was part of the kitchen supply, the rest of the circuit is still operating.
The main consumer unit is a small metal clad affair with 3 fuses 2 x 30A 1 x 6A. the two 30A fuses had 4/1 circuits running from them. The fuse carriers have been cooked with visible signs of heating and damage to insulation. The owner is looking at selling at one point soon and cannot afford a rewire.
What is the best way forward when replacing old MI consumer units. Replace with like for updated like? Crimp MI conductors onto PVC/PVC into new board?
What are your thoughts?
Regards
Richard G

somersetsparks · May 10, 2013

richardg said:
View attachment 18958 Afternoon Gentleman. I received a call yesterday to a 1960s Flat due to a loss of power in half the kitchen. Upon inspecting the wiring I found a mixture of MI and PVC/PVC linked and run with no logic or system. The dead section of the kitchen(sockets + cooker + extractor fan) showed a dead short between L-N-E. After a little mining the owner mentioned they had no power for the last two years! I believe the conductors are damaged at one point especially when I found out the cooker was part of the kitchen supply, the rest of the circuit is still operating.
The main consumer unit is a small metal clad affair with 3 fuses 2 x 30A 1 x 6A. the two 30A fuses had 4/1 circuits running from them. The fuse carriers have been cooked with visible signs of heating and damage to insulation. The owner is looking at selling at one point soon and cannot afford a rewire.
What is the best way forward when replacing old MI consumer units. Replace with like for updated like? Crimp MI conductors onto PVC/PVC into new board?
What are your thoughts?
Regards
Richard G

First I would bell all the cables, find your faults and rectify if possible. If the customer wants a fuseboard change, You could probably get a metalclad board of your choice and put it into the place of that one and re-pot the pyro as necessary, the advantage being that modern units are much bigger then the wylex standard one shown. You may well be able to sit the new board straight onto the bottom 3 pyros without touching the glands and just re-terminate the top one. I assume their are none coming in the back?
First things first though sort the rest of the wiring out!