Advice on New Consumer Unit Change Please?

vanessap · Aug 2, 2023

Hi Everyone,

Last year arranged for my mother's and my consumer units to be changed by the same electrician who is NICEIC registered.

Both jobs were not completed for various reasons, I have been trying to arrange for them to be completed over the last two months. At my home the oven began tripping after the unit was changed, which has not been resolved and I have since learned from a local TLC electrical shop that grounding wires should have been attached to the water mains stopcock (I have purchased the cable, attachment and our plumber has attached to so it can be run and attached).

The electrician who has now agreed after much chasing, to visit my mother's home on Friday to complete the work, though he has said that he will have to charge extra for testing and the certificate. I have paid £750.00 for the labor on each unit and parts separately, which I understood was for the entire job last year. The TLC electrical shop also explained that testing should be done before and after the installation.

Please may I ask if anyone might be able to shed some light on the process of installing a new consumer unit and what the job usually entails please, so I may have some idea if the work is being carried out correctly and safely?

Thank you so much in advance,
Vanessa

vanessap · Aug 2, 2023

timhoward said:
Not a silly question.
What you want is a thing called an EICR - an electrical installation condition report.
The testing part of this has things in common with the testing done after a consumer unit change, but an ECIR is also an inspection which is trying to discover as much as possible about the condition of the wiring and things that have happened to it and whether it is deemed satisfactory for continued use.

I'd generally expect PVC wiring from the 80's to be in serviceable condition IF it hasn't been overly subjected to DIY, cowboy electricians, kitchen fitters, water ingress, been overloaded, etc.
There may be a shortage of sockets relative to what would be useful today, but that is a separate issue.

Hi @timhoward, Thank you! I had no idea that this existed, I imagine the extension in the kitchen area is where most of the work might be a bit iffy. I am not sure if it might have overload everything or caused damage but it would be really good to find out. Thank you, I will look into some quotes. Is it a lengthy process of testing?

Cankeredlamentations · Aug 3, 2023

vanessap said:
Hi @timhoward, Thank you! I had no idea that this existed, I imagine the extension in the kitchen area is where most of the work might be a bit iffy. I am not sure if it might have overload everything or caused damage but it would be really good to find out. Thank you, I will look into some quotes. Is it a lengthy process of testing?

The time taking to test depends really on how many circuits there are and what shows up, for example an older installation (like my grandparents house) only has 6 circuits in total so testing those initially at the consumer unit and then at fixed equipment (light fittings, switches, shower etc) took me about 2 hours (I am still fairly new to the electrical trade) and there was no issues, although older wiring it still had good results as there had not been an alterations done on the original installation part from things like swapping light fittings. (I am sure a more experienced spark would be quicker than myself)

However the amount of time would increase when the test results indicate something is not correct or a fault (with a fault, It does not necessarily mean the circuit does not 'work' for the home owner but electrically it would not be to modern safety standards/regulations etc). In the case were the test results are not satisfactory, further testing is required, some tests may be more invasive than others depending on the situation and upon further testing it may be deemed that a rewire in full (as in all circuits) or a partial re wire (for example maybe 1 or 2 circuits need re wiring).

some faults are easier to investigate than others but it is dependant on the circumstances, you may have the same type of issue in one property that is easy to resolve and find the route cause, while in another its an absolute nightmare because of how the wiring is routed (old nasty lofts full of junk, insulation and joint boxes are a particular favourite of most electricians lol).

A full EICR will be able to check for this and the person doing should outline any remedial work required.

Vortigern · Aug 3, 2023

When you say the consumer unit is "not finished" what do you mean exactly?

vanessap · Aug 11, 2023

Thank you all so much!

I meant it was not finished in that I now understand that the electricians did not test the electrics before replacing the consumer unit, at the end when they finished I was told that they needed to come back to do a bit more testing but I believe they knew that there was a fault and were possibly avoiding having to address it or figure it out. They have withheld giving a completion certificate or building regulations certificate at my home; this work was done in Dec 2021. They have now said that they would not offer a quote to find the issue as their minimum call out fee per days work is £1000.00 though they will come back to complete the testing and give a certificate once the fault is resolved by someone else.