Consumer unit mounting

[Spikenaylor]

I have read that the consumer unit needs to be mounted on non combustible material,
what do you do in the case of a consumer unit replacement when the old one is fitted onto wood, chipboard, mdf etc that also has all the dno equipment fitted, on an older property, the original cu or fuses etc would have been fitted onto plain old wood

 

[High Tower]

proteus boards can be mounted on pizza base then?

Or toast

 

[Fin170]

And as for all the Wylex 3036 boards with open backs and that are made of wood?

 

[Guest111]

And as for all the Wylex 3036 boards with open backs and that are made of wood?

if I remember correctly they came with a sheet of thin bakelite type material that fitted between the board and the mounting board,didn't happen that often though.

 

[micknew]

This regulation goes back to when you could buy open backed Wylex CU's which had the option of fitting a paxolin back plate which had to be fitted when mounting it on a soft wood backboard.
All modern CU's are fully enclosed.

 

[Fin170]

Ah, so it was another one of those things 'back in the day' sparks regularly didn't bother with, I'll add that as another warning sigh of no bonding and borrowed neutrals :lol:


Considering bell and mem were using decent ceramic boxes back in those days I don't see how wylex got away with their fire positive design

 

[Engineer54]

It's too late to get the book out, but i'm sure that these roumors come fram way back when there were CU's out there, and still are, with open backed enclosures - wylex's etc, you still see loads of them.

Something about any switchgear likely to produce arcing etc.

Modern boards are not 'likely' to produce arcing unless under fault conditions.

As i say, too late to go digging so i'll leave my hat on.......

The old Wylex open back wooden CU's were made of seasoned and treated hard wood, and i've never seen or heard of one going up in flames due to an electrical fault.

The back boards of yesteryear where both meter and CU were mounted, were treated with a fire retardant liquid, that i can't remember the name of off hand. Whether the modern DNO mounted backboards are still treated as such i have no idea. But these treated backboards were available at electrical wholesalers in a variety of different sizes in those days.

As i said above, i've never seen or even heard of one of those old wooden Wylex boards catching fire due to an electrical fault, ...But i've both seen and heard of plenty of the modern Plastic CU's ending up as just a molten blob on the floor!! lol!!

 

[JD6400]

I have seen fire damage on the old wooden Wylex boards , as too with modern day boards .
But in fairness the fire damage in all cases with the older boards could be directly contributed to " being farmered " as i like to call it , Whereas it has been just poor quality with the modern ones !

 

[Engineer54]

Fire damage by house fire or the like, certainly not from an internal electrical fault!! You can aim a blow torch at the wood for a good few minutes on those old Wylex boards, and all you'll see is charring, it will not catch fire!!

 

[telectrix]

when wood was wood, men were men, and sheep (in wales and yorkshire) were wary.

 

[JD6400]

If i can find them i will dig out a couple of photos , these were most definitely internal fires but as i have already conceded they have in every case been tampered with by the client ( Farmer !) .:frown2:

 

[Guest55]

Its called Emmental !!!, or has the fancy cheeses not reached you guys in BLackpool yet?

edam and crumbly lancashire are my fav.
;-)

 

[thomas-1981]

I've done jobs where the contractor has requested the DB's be mounted on fire retardant boards. But with modern DB's I think this is a bit much. Along as the board is flat and sound I would fit the DB.

 

[Octopus]

Back to the OP. If you are preparing for the DNO to site a new or moved meter, they will ask for a non combustible material!

 

[Guest55]

they'll get chipboard whether they like it or not lol.

 

[IanHug]

The old wired board in my house was half made of wood.