friends having extension, how will it be wired.

[scampy]

A friend of mine is having a downstairs extension, it'll be a kitchen diner when done. The quote he's received includes the electrics but i'm a concerned how they'll be done.

I went round yesturday to disconnect the power from his garage as this is being part knocked down. this is when i discovered the follwoing.

Fuse board is very limited, didn't take note on make ect but it consists of wired fuses for the following circuits. Ring, Lights, water heater and cooker. The shower is on its own RCD shower unit, the power for which comes from the fuse board but i didn't take the cover off to see where.

i'm concerned that the existing fuse board will be used with extensions to the ring and lights for the new kitchen. This obviously is not ideal but will it still be ok and get a certificate. My mom has had electrical work done by builders and has not certificates for it.

I've asked him to talk to the builder to get details of what is planned so i can see if it's right.

my susgestion is that he should be looking at a new CU with the extension then being on it's own circuits as well as the garage which he uses as a small workshop. Moving forward, as he wishes to sell the house when he's finished, he should be looking at getting a partcial re-wire to seperate out some of the circuits.

would this be sound advice

 

[EasyFox]

Well with the advent of the 17th regs, even if the builder does extend the circuits, he will now have to provide rcd cover to said circuits.aswell as assessing that the circuits & installation are able to cope with any extra load.
So in this situation I have started to advise customers of two options;

(1) that they might want to think about having the consumer unit upgraded to a 17th compliant one (assuming of course that rcbo's cann't be obtained for the existing unit) that way new circuits can be added if required + they get the benefit of all circuits tested & inspected upon completion.

(2) split the meter tails install a small unit for the extension only (upgrade the bonding as required).

 

[scampy]

cheers easyfox. That's what i said to him that i would be looking at doing, number 1 that is. good to get it from another source. I'll report back here when i find out what the builder is planning to do

 

[dandb]

(2) split the meter tails install a small unit for the extension only (upgrade the bonding as required).

Are you allowed to split the meter tails. I thought you were not allowed to interfere with the meter. Or do you just mean run a distribution board from the meter etc

 

[EasyFox]

Are you allowed to split the meter tails. I thought you were not allowed to interfere with the meter. Or do you just mean run a distribution board from the meter etc

You split the meter tails by using "Henley or service blocks"
100a Henley Block from Alert Electrical

It does entail the removal of the service cutout fuse (rolls eyes & whistles innocently), meter tails go into henley block & then two sets can be taken out of henley block to different cu's.

This picture is from a PIR undertaken ages ago, but it shows the use of a DP Henley block that is sited just above the small MK enclosure.

 

[TPES]

Click the image below...

Would you say this is a correct way of "Splitting the tails" the second supply is for the shower.