Real Life Customer Enquirer

[Paul.M]

Go for it mate I would free lessons and a meal to boot no contest

All sorted, Northstar is jumping on this job and yes free food on another small job afterwards, looking forward to a working Saturday for a change. (Off Friday, playing golf and getting drunk with mates lol).

Your in at the deep end Northstar, its your job once you walk through the door! You look, I'll observe and change places at half time. The customer is absolutely fine with this, the kind of man that believes in training etc.

Good luck and see you Saturday.

 

[Paul.M]

Well I must say that Northstar and me work well together, good little team up today mate, I enjoyed it. You were thrown in at the deep end but worked most of it out yourself, impressed. Not a straight forward job, few things to think about. Here are the findings, lets see what you would do???

TN-C-S, 100A main fuse, no Isolation switch, 25mm tails less than 3m at present.
10mm main Earth to the incoming MET at the incomer head.
Gas bonding in 10mm going straight to the incomer head.
Water banding 10mm going to the BS3036 MET C/U. (old re-wire-able btw)
Old C/U is loose and moves when you pull a fuse out!
C1= Full house sockets. 3 x 2.5mm in one 30A fuse?
C2= 7.5Kw shower in 6mm on a 30A.
C3= Immersion heater in 4mm on a 20A.
C4= Full house lights 1.5 on a 5A.


Now the difficult bit, the customer!!!!

He wants the C/U moving from under the sink cupboard to the one above. Most cables are coming from above so only the Tails, water bonding and the 2.5mm "socket cables" need to be extended.

Q. How do we achieve this?

We have 3 x 2.5mm for the sockets in one 30A MCB atm! Because of the house being full of kids, parents, grand parents and they do not have the time today for us to be there for long, unable to test and confirm if it is 3 x radial circuits, 1 x RFC + 1 x radial??? This will have to be confirmed at the C/U change point. I personally think and Northstar agrees, after looking at this house it will be 1 x RFC for the full house and the extra cable is a spur from the CU to one or more points in the kitchen. We saw that extra sockets and a Switched fused spur have been added in the past 10-15 years. This will be addressed once we start testing when we change the CU. Not ideal but it is what we have to play with.

 

[Paul.M]

The shower and immersion heater circuits are not an issue, just testing.

The lighting circuit for the full house is a problem. A new dual 2 way RCD is to be fitted but the customer is not willing to pay for the lighting circuit to be rewired/split (and damage cause to a landlords property etc). Unable to separate upstairs and downstairs lights!

Q. How do we resolve this problem on a CU change? Is there anything on the EIC sheets that can explain why the lights are not separated?


Another issue is how close the excising CU is to the incoming gas pipe in the cupboard. Only about 20mm away and it is a 90d elbow joint on the pipe! Any know the Reg for how close electrical equipment needs to be away from a gas pipe? My new junction box (or whatever I install) is going to be in that same cupboard! I need to know how far away it needs to be... Can some one do my homework for me please


The actual job itself is not all that uncommon, knowing the Regs and what we can and cant do is key to every job. Moving this CU is just going to cause damage to the tiles and wall which the customer is happy to repair himself so no issue there. Verbal quot given on the spot. E-mail quote will be written tomorrow (its a Saturday night and I cant be bothered atm lol). This job will go ahead and we will take pictures of before, during and afterwards.

 

[happysteve]

Thanks for updating us, sounds like great experience for Northstar!

The OSG tells me:

Gas installation pipes must be spaced:
​

1. 
   [*=1]at least 150mm away from electricity meters, controls, electrical switches or socket-outlets, distribution boards or consumer units (unless a non-combustible barrier of insulating material is interposed);
   [*=1]at least 25mm away from electricity supply and distribution cables (for domestic pipework upto 35mm; for pipework over 35mm, then 50mm separation is required.

The cited distances are quoted within BS 6891:2005+A2:2008 Installation of low pressure gas pipework in domestic premises, clause 8.16.2.
​

I'm not sure what a joint box would fall under. To be on the safe side, I would ensure it is at least 150mm away from the gas pipe, if there's space.

Regarding splitting the lights... I've got to admit, I would never have thought of this! This is so common on so many small houses, wired 30 or more years ago (like my old one).

How long will the tails be, once you've moved the location of the CU? Will you need to do anything special?