difficult access to mains fuse box in emergency

mikcon · Dec 16, 2011

Hi There, I am new to forum. We bought a new house 2 months ago and the mains fuse box is in the garage. The problem is we can only enter via electric garage door. I am away a lot and my wife is scared that electricity may fuse in evening/night and she has no heat or light.

The builder has given an emergency key for manual opening but it looks difficult to use and would be problematic for my wife in the middle of night. What if it snows? it may not be possible to open door.

My question is: Do modern electric regs deal with such a situation? Do you believe it is a reasonable place to put fusebox in the circumstances? Is there anything I can do to make the builder put it right? Am I right to be concerned?
There is no reason why the fusebox could not have been put elsewhere.

Thank you all and any help would be appreciated.

Short Circuit · Dec 16, 2011

Mikcon,
I am surprised no one else has answered this. I am affraid that there is nothing in the regs that i can think of that would stop you putting the board in the garage - i would agree that this isnt ideal given the situation but as there is access to the garage with the handle or key, then that is fine. It is often the case where the baord is in the garage, although i always recommend another access door of the actual garage door is to be electric but that is more for convenience. It would be hard to cover all circumstances for the builder, like you working away a lot. Why wont the door open if it snows? If possible, why not get the garage door changed to its own circuit controlled via an RCBO, then if the rest of the house trips, the garage door will remain on. If there is a power loss, going into the garage isnt going to do anything anyway. Might not be the answer you were looking for but hope this helps

Adam W · Dec 16, 2011

As Short Circuit says, there is no specific reg stating a consumer unit can't be in the garage, or that it should be in any other specific place. While having it in a more accessible position may be more convenient in certain situations, modern consumer units, service fuses etc aren't the prettiest things in the world and many people would consider having it 'out of the way' in the garage the best place for it.

If I were going to get anything changed I'd have a door put in from the house to the garage, then you can get in the car without getting rained on.

I wouldn't say having the consumer unit in the garage is necessarily 'dangerous' at all - there are more important things in this world to worry about, such as climate change, national debt, childhood obesity etc.

windtech · Dec 16, 2011

you can have a circuit on the board controled by a mcb and not by a rcd what you could use to control the door and a socket by the fuseboard in case of faults so you have power for a light etc to fix said fault

Knobhead · Dec 17, 2011

Short circuit’s idea would seem the most logical path to go down.

1shortcircuit · Dec 17, 2011

I presume you have a 17th edition split load RCD consumer unit fitted?

If this is thge case then your wife needn't be too concerned as your circuits should now be separated so that you will only loose particular circuits in the event of a RCD trip. The only time you would lose everything is if there is a powercut which you won't be able to rectify yourself even if you weren't working away.

For example, you may lose upstairs lights and downstairs sockets but you will still have upstairs sockets (to plug in a lamp) and downstairs lights.

Is your kitchen on it's own circuit?

If the heating is on the side that trips then be sure to have a plug in heater that can be used in case of an emergency. One of those ones that costs about a tenner with the safety feature that cuts off the power if it's knocked over may be worth considering?

You could improve your installation further by removing the two RCD's and having an RCBO fitted to each circuit. At around 30 odd quid each this could prove expensive but it will mean that if there is a fault on a particular circuit then only that circuit will be affected. This work will most definitely need to be carried out by a Part P registered electrician as this will need to be notified with the local authority building control.

Please feel free to post up some pictures of the new consumer unit showing it's layout so that other ideas may be suggested:thumbsup