New CU and meter tails etc

[rajshar]

Hi
I don't know if I should ask it here or the main electricians forum. It's about CU change and the work around it and the CU change will be done by a proper registered electrician.

I will try to upload the pictures so you can see what I am talking about. I took two quotations. One just ask for pictures and quoted me for new BG CU with RCBOs, meter tails, upgrade the earth cable as the old one is only 6mm.

The second one visited my house today and after looking at the meter fuse board gave me two quotes, one including materials and one just his labour, testing and certificate charges. He said there is no need to tell Building control as he is registered and his certificate covered it. His quote includes fitting new CU and meter tails. But he said he won't change the earth cable as that is coming out of cut out and he isn't allowed to touch that. He also told me that the tails from the cutout to the meter and then to the fuse board are 16mm. The cutout fuse is rated 100A. The length of tails from cutout to meter is about 60cm and from meter to the fuse board is about 120cm including all the bends. Is all this acceptable? I know that I can ask him to fit 25mm tails to the CU but who is responsible to change the tails from cutout to the meter and who is supposed to change the earth cable for bonding from cut out to the gas pipe.

I have an appointment scheduled with British Gas to fit an isolator between the meter and fuse board as the first electrician asked for it. Can British Gas electrician change the tails and earth bonding cable from cutout while fitting the isolator?
Sorry for a long description and questions.
Thanks

 

[Babs]

I do understand diversity and I know we don't use all the appliances and other stuff at the same time. Just like so many others, we do have plans for Electric Vehicle.

I think this post is becoming unnecessary lengthy. The original question has been answered and now I know how to proceed with my next quote and what questions to ask.

Thanks to everyone who contributed positively and suggested what should be done.
Thanks

No problem Rajshar. I enjoyed the discussion.

 

[DPG]

I do understand diversity and I know we don't use all the appliances and other stuff at the same time. Just like so many others, we do have plans for Electric Vehicle.

I think this post is becoming unnecessary lengthy. The original question has been answered and now I know how to proceed with my next quote and what questions to ask.

Thanks to everyone who contributed positively and suggested what should be done.
Thanks

We can drag out a thread on here, don't you worry ?

You do raise a good point though. Whereas in the past any house would be fine on a 60 Amp fuse, things are changing a little with the higher output EV chargers. Having said that, a lot of them have current monitoring and can throttle back if the household usage is peaking.

 

[brianmoooore]

Having said that, a lot of them have current monitoring and can throttle back if the household usage is peaking.

It'll have to go further than that, with whole area monitoring by some means. The existing infrastructure isn't remotely capable of providing even 60A to each household at the same time.
Maybe you'll be required to have a second battery in the house that charges intelligently when it can, in preparation for discharging itself quickly into the car battery.

 

[Gurnatronics]

You can think of what you want to think. It may be that 60 or 80amp is enough at this time. There is something called future proof. How about tomorrow we want an EV point?
DNO has no problem to upgrade the fuse if rated cables are there. I as a customer don't want to pay again for 25mm tails if it can be installed now.
Now having knowledge or asking questions, I don't think there is anything wrong asking. You can ignore this thread if you think I am wrong.

tinfoil hat on

Don’t worry the DNO will remotely drop your smart EV charger via information obtained by its smart meter to 10A during peak load anyway so no need to worry about Fuse or tails size