consumer units replaced

[TAZ]

Good morning sparkies
Just wanted to run this by you. I do small maintainance jobs in 4 small flats & 5 small houses. They came under new management a couple of years ago. They have had a full EICR carried out last year & have had all the proteus 16 edition consumer units replaced . The two 16 edition wylex were left. If this was a personal decision by the management company to get every thing upto date, fair enough, but these boards were only fitted in 2006. Any ideas as to why the wylex ones were not changed but the proteus ones were or can anyone suggest a regulation or an electrical reason as to why this might be.
Many thanks. Taz

 

[dave274]

ask the owners you can get a definitive answer off them and not just assumption.

 

[telectrix]

probably changed the proteus boards because they were crap.

 

[oldtimer]

Don;t take this the wrong way but you are asking cryptic questions here its not what you are telling us its what you are not so here is the deal supply more information and no doubt you have phone with a camera on it

 

[TAZ]

No i am not taking it the wrong way. Back in 2006 after a PIR it was decided to update all the houses & flats to the current edition of BS 7671 ie replacing all the consumer units from the old wylex BS 3036 boards to a more modern split load version. The earthing & protective bonding was updated at the same time.In 2012 a full EICR was carried out & the proteus boards were all changed apart from a couple of the newer split load wylex boards that take the NSB breakers The job has already been carried out so i canot supply originals. All the proteus boards have been replaced with Hager dual rcd insulated boards. Unless there have been problems with these boards all i am asking is does anyone know why these might have been changed it seems a bit over the top to change these if they are in a sound condition. I have worked on them before & could not see anything untoward I understand the boards don't comply because the regulations have changed since these were installed, but you can't fail an installation because the board in question does not comply with the 17 edition>

 

[markythesparky]

I would say the the guy who has issued the EICR is on a job creation scheme. the Wylex ones were probably I bit harder to do.

 

[oldtimer]

Thanks for clarifying this and yes you are right you cannot fail a CU because it is not 17th edition compliant. Although it looks to me that somebody managed to talk them into replacing the Proteus CU with Hager as for me I don't like Proteus but there is no way I could find a reason to force a customer to change them.

Thing is there is a lot of Urban Myths in our trade like the landlord who called me and said am I obliged to upgrade the CU to the 17th edition for rental purposes my reply was no you are not legally required to upgrade it but you must ensure the installation is safe. The reply was well someone is getting a phone call and I understand he got a full refund from the company who issued the EICR saying he had to upgrade so me thinks this could be the same situation or maybe someone abused their position to get their mate some work