Metal CU. Why?

[LastManOnline]

Metal CU.

Am curious to know why the UK regs demanded a metal CU. Would it not have been helpful to first investigate what was causing overheating the CU?

 

[westward10]

To be fair we shouldn't tar all DIs with the same brush. Last year we were asked to audit a load of CU replacements for a housing association all done by the same DI. I could only find one issue with all of them, the power and lighting was not correctly divided across the two dual rcds so power on one lighting on the other. Yes this is an oversight but the installation of the CUs was excellent, very neat and would probably put some seasoned electricians to shame.
As someone has already stated there are forum members who have taken this route so can the broken record be turned off.

 

[LastManOnline]

I'll try again. IET Link

Given up. Just Google 'IET why were metal consumer unit introduced'. Hopefully you'll find the piece, 3 places down. Its headed '55 - Special Edition II 2015'. Going for a lie down now.

Much appreciated ?

 

[Midwest]

Thing is, why would any employer pay for an apprenticeship for someone (if that’s what happens these days), only for the employee to bog off, once’s the apprenticeship diplomas have been handed out.
Which is exactly what I did

 

[ipf]

thing is, us old school know that after tightening a terminal, we let it rest for a few minutes, wriggle it, then tighten again. bet this ain't taught on the 5week courses for one.

Sounds like them celebs on a 5 week dance course on telly?
Tighten, rest, wriggle, tighten, taught, coarse.....ooooh!
[automerge]1601487491[/automerge]

As someone has already stated there are forum members who have taken this route so can the broken record be turned off.

It's a fact though, Westy. Wrong doing and bad work goes on. Standards have gone down, mostly due to the system of the last 20 years, so why do people get upset...those on here know that they aren't the ones being brought to task. It should be brought to the fore, not shoved under the carpet.
Or, is it all due to today's minority standards. We'll be hung out to dry for calling a french man a frog, or an Aussie a ****...........well maybe not.

 

[pc1966]

I think his point is that a short-course domestic installer is not automatically bad at it, the same way that a time-served member of one of the scams schemes is not automatically good.

As always it comes down to an individual's attitude to work and aptitude to learn.

But we see the same with EICR and smart meter fitting, once something becomes big enough business on its own then you get companies that "specialise" in doing it as cheaply as possible, and quality be damned.

 

[Dartlec]

Then we get some idiots who can't, or don't, even fit a tiny busbar correctly.
The list goes on.......

One issue with consumer units I've found, of either material, is the plastic that holds the neutral/earth busbars being cheap and prone to breakage if proper torque is applied.

Obviously it has to be insulated, but some manufacturers clearly save money in places that other's don't.

 

[OnlQQker]

I asked this question to a couple of sparks along the way. Both of them replied they were changed back to metal because of homeowners breaking the plastic by catching them with ironing boards etc, and exposing the live terminal inside.

Whatever an ironing board is?

I guess the fire hazard thing makes more sense, yet the amount of consumer units I've seen located right next to the gas meter then surely the gas supply would blow out any potential fire!

 

[Mike Johnson]

My CU is in my workshop protected by the metal ladder propped up against it.