RCBO - Permitted or not?

Jabbajaws · Jun 23, 2011

A friend of mine needs the cable to her shower upgrading, due to a fault, arising from an overload.

The previous cable was 6mm sq and needs upgrading to a 10mm sq and she has been told that by British Gas that she either needs a brand new CU, or the new shower can be fitted externally in a shower consumer unit, as it needs RCD protection under the 17th regs. They have quoted her £900 for this kind advice and the poor woman is a pensioner.

The existing board has no RCD protection but has got MCBs fitted.

Before l farm this out to a scheme registered sparky, l'd like to help this lady, and l have told her to buy the cable and accessories etc herself, so that she only has to pay the sparky for his time.

Is fitting an RCBO to a pre-17th, possibly also pre-16th board allowed under the current regs? Is it permitted and is it also safe to do this?

Does anyone has any advice regarding this, as it's something im unfamilar with at present?

Would fitting the shower supply externally be a more sensible or practical choice?

Feedback welcome.... :smilewinkgrin:

Short Circuit · Jun 23, 2011

Jabba, £900 is really excessive i think. How far is the run to the shower and what is the route - would it be easy to pull the cable in in other words? I think the most i have seen anyone on here charge for a CU change is 400, so thats another 500 to put a shower in! Have they also quoted to upgrade the earthing too?

What kind of board is the existing one? There is nothing wrong with changing the MCB to a RCBO - as long as you can get that type, send us a pic or the MCB make etc and someone here will know if you can get them. The CU change is the better option i think as it will protect the rest of the house also, if she can afford it! IF she cant and the RCBO isnt available, thats when you look at the external CU for the shower only

Re buying the materials, before you do that, get a price for what you need- you may find a spark can get a better deal than you can!

Could be worth a try to see if anyone on here is local to you to do the job

kamkam · Jun 23, 2011

as long as the main earth is ok and the gas and water is bonded. You can have a shower unit (housing with RCBO with correct protection device) fitted (split the tails via henley block). Install and test and issue cert. all good... £900 is madness! depending on the route of the new 10mm it shouldn't more than a day and ahalf for a spark that knows what hes doing... part p cert and all that jazz will be need (jazz being electrical installation certificate, schedule of inspectons and schedule of test results) Materials £200 tops thats a guess of 20m run for 10mm £200 labour maybe abit more if making good is required.

nickblake · Jun 23, 2011

it does depend on what make board she has ,if an RCBO is available you could install that , also the size of the shower ,anything up to 8.7kw would be fine on a 6mm cable and yes the easiest way to connect the shower would be by using a shower CDU which has RCD protection depending on the length of the cable and make of shower ,and accessability to install a new cable i wouldnt have thought this job would cost No more than £500 also depends on the bonding to water gas services to

opps just added the no ,missed it out ,should have been no more than £500

Octopus · Jun 23, 2011

You don't say where you are but I've just done a very similar job. For £667 the customer got a complete CU change, a new 10mm shower circuit (15m), isolation switch, a couple of small fixes and bonding done. This also included the necessary LABC notification.

I'd recommend a seperate CU for the shower.

mattmoo1974 · Jun 23, 2011

As mentioned wait on the parts, You cant go charging more for parts then Joe blogs(Customer) can get them for.
I charge what they can get them(Or less depending on part).
If i was to charge £900 for jobs like that id have a nice tv campain running at present!
Its silly high im sure you ll get closer to 60% of that price, You need to check the bonding to get a idea of whats needs to be done tho.

truckster · Jun 23, 2011

mattmoo1974 said:
As mentioned wait on the parts, You cant go charging more for parts then Joe blogs(Customer) can get them for.

I would say you are entitled to charge more than they can get them for, you have to buy them, get them to the job and if something fails you will more than likely have to replace it free of charge.

If a customer wants to supply the kit thats fine but I am not running around picking it up.

Back on to the subject you could always just run the new cable though a stand alone RCD and keep the existing mcb etc.

mattmoo1974 · Jun 23, 2011

My wholesaler drops it off to my house

The first thing a customer does is check the prices for parts the second you leave mate, If you do it a bit cheaper then they can get it you ll be classed as alright and word of mouth plays a part.
Or you ll get them moaning over the fence about the sparky who over charges on parts.
It might just be where i live.

truckster · Jun 23, 2011

Yeah, I see your point and in all honesty with trade discount my prices are usually cheaper anyway but if anyone questions me about it I will give them the opportunity to go and get it themselves.

And yeah it might be just where you live, down in Devon it's considered passe to discuss money don't you know?

james29022004 · Jun 23, 2011

I add 30% to any parts i supply-you cant afford to run around for nothing.I have not been challenged on this yet and am luckily as busy as i need to be.When big firms like BG are charged this much for works i am cheap by comparison so i wont supply anything for nothing.

Jabbajaws · Jun 24, 2011

Thank you guyz for all the input. Sorry it's taken so long to reply. I will try and get a photo, so that l can demonstrate. One thing l can confirm is that the cable run will be no longer than 20 metres.

I'll get as much info as, l can and return.

As usual thank for all your much appreciated feedback...

mattmoo1974 · Jun 24, 2011

truckster said:
Yeah, I see your point and in all honesty with trade discount my prices are usually cheaper anyway but if anyone questions me about it I will give them the opportunity to go and get it themselves.

And yeah it might be just where you live, down in Devon it's considered passe to discuss money don't you know?

I live in devon!