Repositioning CU

[Midwest]

Sorry if I hadn't made it clear and I don't want to turn this into an epic…...but: I haven't seen the place, but from what’s been described to me, the garage is integral in that it forms part of the house. It has a garage door, but no other access to the house. When a mcb trips, for example a bulb blows, a device fault like a doggy iron or the kids chuck coke over their tv (get my drift?), it means going outside open the garage door and reset mcb or rcd. A sort of design fault with the house. They've obviously had had some bad experiences with said situations, and whilst going through the trauma of having the builders in etc, they thought about rectifying the fault. Having a chit chat at work, I suggested considering moving the cu into the house into the new extension. They will have to have alterations to the wiring whilst doing the ex’, so moving the cu is a consideration.
They could have a new door cut into the garage, but it would need to comply with fire regs, and apparently the new door would have to be fitted at the opposite end to where the old cu is, hence having to negotiate parked car in garage (in the dark?) to reset mcb.
As regards my question about cu isolator, I thought you had to apply discrimination i.e. 100a suppliers fuse > 80a sw/fuse, therefore80a cu isolator, or is that incorrect?

 

[Guitarist]

Personally, I don't think discrimination at that point is really an issue. I would prefer to give the householder 100A to their CU if that's what is available. Granted, it is far easier to replace an 80A fuse than get the DNO out to change their 100A, but how often does this happen in reality?
Regarding the CU, most built-in isolators will be 100A anyway.
I'm not sure what goes on in that house, but after 15 years living with RCD's and MCB's, including having GU lamps all over the place, I can't actually remember the last time I had to reset anything.

 

[Adam W]

Would fitting an emergency light in the garage so you can see your way to the CU just be throwing a spanner in the works and overcomplicating the issue?

 

[Guitarist]

Would fitting an emergency light in the garage so you can see your way to the CU just be throwing a spanner in the works and overcomplicating the issue?

Or maybe having a small shelf just inside the garage with a torch on....

Seriously tho, I think there may be existing faults if the MCB's/RCD's are going out so often that it is a concern.

 

[snowhead]

This is a massive project for the small gain he will achieve. If it is just lamps blowing which is the trip problem then he could :-

a) Change the GU lamps for LED types.

b) Change the fittings altogether.

Or c) Feed the Lighting circuit from the non RCD side of the C.U, and fit an RCD inside the house just for the lighting.

.

 

[Adam W]

Or maybe having a small shelf just inside the garage with a torch on....

Seriously tho, I think there may be existing faults if the MCB's/RCD's are going out so often that it is a concern.

I don't know, it's difficult to tell just how often these MCBs are tripping. On the one hand it's apparently being caused by 'routine' things such as bulbs blowing, although it's happening often enough to be a problem.
I can't help thinking this is just an excuse to dive in and change the CU.

 

[Engineer54]

I think it has been clearly shown already that this proposed CU repositioning is going to be a totally uneconomical folly to attempt for little to no gain!!

Why would you be groping around in the dark in the garage area, surely the lights in the garage would be on a dedicated circuit?? (or should or could be made to be) Even if it needs the addition of another switch next to the new door (2 way switch) that's nothing to sort out now is it??... lol!!!

 

[Midwest]

I think it has been clearly shown already that this proposed CU repositioning is going to be a totally uneconomical folly to attempt for little to no gain!!

Why would you be groping around in the dark in the garage area, surely the lights in the garage would be on a dedicated circuit?? (or should or could be made to be) Even if it needs the addition of another switch next to the new door (2 way switch) that's nothing to sort out now is it??... lol!!!

Guess it all hinges on how much it would cost to install a new fire door in the garage then and the impact with regard to house insurance - it was just an idea

 

[Engineer54]

Guess it all hinges on how much it would cost to install a new fire door in the garage then and the impact with regard to house insurance - it was just an idea

Installing a domestic rated fire door, will be many times cheaper than a complete CU repositioning exercise such as you have described, in both time and money!!

 

[Guitarist]

Many houses have fire doors between the house and integral garage. I can't see it actually having any affect on the insurance as the garage is still integral.
The consensus is that moving the CU with all it entails will be far more expensive than putting in a door with a battery or emergency light to negotiate the garage.
Said all I can. Good luck
I'm out...

 

[sedgy34]

if you put a door in its going to cost and when building regs get involved cost even more with additional things so it complys,
cheapest option would be to extend lighting circuits into the house in a small CU.

 

[Adam W]

The cheapest option would be to do nothing at all and continue with the present arrangement.
Moving the CU seems like a 'sticking plaster' solution - you might not have to go outside to reset a breaker, but you'd still have to go outside to get in the garage for any other reason, such as getting your glasses out of the car.

 

[Engineer54]

if you put a door in its going to cost and when building regs get involved cost even more with additional things so it complies,
cheapest option would be to extend lighting circuits into the house in a small CU.

Are you actually being serious here???

 

[Adam W]

Are you actually being serious here???

Adding a door to an external, load-bearing wall can be an expensive business. My mate (who's an architect) did it a few years ago to give access from his flat to the 'garden' outside; instead of wedding presents they asked for money for their door instead, which was going to cost over a grand - it's not just a case of bashing a hole in the wall, you need to get a structural engineer in so the house doesn't fall down.
They moved out a year or so later to move to a 'family home' but the garden door added more to the value of the property than they spent on it.

As I said on a recent thread the cheapest option isn't always the best, but I think in this situation a door straight through to the garage would be the best option, although I haven't seen the property myself.

 

[Guitarist]

Eng54's comment wasn't about your post mate...