Consumer unit For Flat

solavie · Sep 28, 2013

I have to change a consumer unit in a flat. There is no gas and everything is electric. Not very familiar with low rate energy tariff for nights or old flats

Problem the wiring for the supply to the Storage Heater points have been removed from the second part of the consumer unit and I will need to provide 3 supply for storage heaters.

Attached are some pictures and would like to know if there is a consumer unit to replace this one and how to get the low rate electric for the Storage Heaters

Thanks

Kate · Sep 28, 2013

That meter setup is seriously old. If this was my job my first thing to do would be to contact supplier and get them to upgrade.

Don't bother direct swapping. Put in two fuseboards. One for on-peak and a smaller one for storage heaters connected to off-peak

Rockingit · Sep 28, 2013

You can get dual tariff consumer units, on and off peak. Hager make them, and I'm sure others do as well.

Richard Burns · Sep 28, 2013

The E7 supply has been disconnected and is the loose tails in the meter box, you would need to get the supplier to reconnect these so that you have a supply available.
An alternative would be to ask the supplier for a new meter arrangement whereby all power changes to low rate overnight, this would make replacing the CU a lot easier as you would only need a single CU.
Remember that E7 is only cheaper if you have a lot of power usage overnight compared to day usage.

If you were going for a straight swap you will have space problems.
You would be looking for a stacking skeleton unit or a flush stacking board.
Two CUs is probably easier, but not in the space you have available, you may be lucky and be able to fit a standard CU at the top and a small 2/3 way board below it for E7. Wont look good though.

solavie · Sep 28, 2013

I was planning to move the consumer unit higher up as there is a door opening to it. So it will be surface mounted one. Cannot find any dual tariff Consumer unit on line. I have heard there is timer for a DIN rail that might cover the storage heaters. Are these available in 45 amps.

Will ask owner to contact electric supplier to see if meter can be replaced and if that is done might go for 2 boards side by side as suggested.

Richard Burns · Sep 28, 2013

If the electricity meter is replaced (not sure if they would do this FOC) then it is likely that if you (your customer) have requested reinstatement of the economy 7 tariff that they would fit the overall change of supply meters so you would only need one CU.

Then you would need a timer for the storage heaters, the easiest thing is to get a contactor rated at the right load and use a cheap 10/16A timer to switch the contactor. This could take four / five modules so size the CU accordingly.

solavie · Sep 29, 2013

Richard Burns said:
If the electricity meter is replaced (not sure if they would do this FOC) then it is likely that if you (your customer) have requested reinstatement of the economy 7 tariff that they would fit the overall change of supply meters so you would only need one CU.

Then you would need a timer for the storage heaters, the easiest thing is to get a contactor rated at the right load and use a cheap 10/16A timer to switch the contactor. This could take four / five modules so size the CU accordingly.

I not familiar with the contactor and timer as I have never used them before. I am planning using an MK Sentry K7666SP 10 way consumer unit. Would like to know how to wire it to fit the contactor and timer with the other circuits - so as to use only one consumer unit. Anywhere I can look at the connection diagrams.

Thanks

Richard Burns · Sep 29, 2013

If you do not know how to wire them then perhaps you may be taking on more than you should. Ensure that what you are doing is safe and correct at all times for the protection of both yourself and your customers.

This is a diagram I did earlier for two geysers, but if you replace geyser with storage heater then this would be a possible arrangement.

[ElectriciansForums.net] Consumer unit For Flat

solavie · Sep 29, 2013

Thanks for the diagram.

Flanders · Sep 29, 2013

If using the contactor in the CU make sure you have enough spare ways to leave a space each side of the contactor as they can give off quite a bit of heat, you could use a double stack CU with MCBs in top and time clock and contactor in bottom

paul_h · Sep 29, 2013

Personally I'd be getting dno out to either reconnect off peak tails or replace meter. Contactors with timers etc etc is abit crazy for a basic storage heater install....

the disconnected tails look to me like the old off peak which should be able to be hooked into the off peak meter.... But obv you are changing the board. I'd go with two separate boards, prob an 8 way on peak and a 5 way off peak.

amlu · Sep 30, 2013

if you wish to keep it in the current setup then may get a big board (16 way or so) and load it up with gear of your choice (2x incomers, two sets of fuses etc)

Badged01 · Sep 30, 2013

While Richard B's contactor solution would work for what you want you want it would soon eat up 'ways' to put it in and also leave some space for heat dissipation. Personally I'd get the DNO to re-instate the off-peak supply and failing that looking at shoe-horning a bigger CU in there to split the load!

7029 dave · Sep 30, 2013

Just go for 2 db's, one for general domestic the other E7 off peak. See by your pic the metering is all ready set up as E7,ring the customers energy supplier, they will come out and reconnect your new tails (e7), and if your lucky fit a new meter with integral 5 terminal (off peak) to do away with that old time clock.

sl1210 · Oct 5, 2013

I had the same situation on a job the other week. The old board was an old dual tariff. They used to have economy 7, but it looks like the economy 7 meter was disconnected by the dno, and they just connected both the tails to a henly block on the peak time meter. I fitted a new dual tariff wylex board anyway just in case they wanted to reinstate the economy 7 at a later date for the heating.
Alternantivily if you have the room, you could just fit 2 seperate 5 way consumer units with rcbo's.

Here's the board I got

Wylex Dual Tariff Consumer Unit 9 8 Way 100A