Hi everyone,
I am to rewire the upstairs lighting circuit as the old switches, pendants and cables are outdated.
The existing consumer unit is old but still has mcb's rather than rewirable fuses, but NO RCD protection.
The first question is, does the new replacement circuit HAVE to be RCD protected? I'm pretty sure it does, as my new cables will be chased in to the walls but NOT 50mm deep (obviously in prescribed zones)
Second question, rather than put a whole new CU in as this may introduce problems with the other circuits, would it be good practise to mount a small garage CU next to the existing CU? This garage CU would have a 30Ma RCD and space for two mcb's.
Third question is, what would be a suitable way of feeding the garage CU? And a suitable means of isolation?
My thoughts were to double up the tails in to the load side of the main isolator with the existing CU and to terminate the earth in to the earth bar in the existing CU.
Another option which is possible would be to split the existing tails between the 100 fuse and the existing CU and surface clip to the garage CU roughly a meter away.The flaw in this is that I would have to remove the main fuse, which is obviously bad practise.
Thank you in advance for any advice
I am to rewire the upstairs lighting circuit as the old switches, pendants and cables are outdated.
The existing consumer unit is old but still has mcb's rather than rewirable fuses, but NO RCD protection.
The first question is, does the new replacement circuit HAVE to be RCD protected? I'm pretty sure it does, as my new cables will be chased in to the walls but NOT 50mm deep (obviously in prescribed zones)
Second question, rather than put a whole new CU in as this may introduce problems with the other circuits, would it be good practise to mount a small garage CU next to the existing CU? This garage CU would have a 30Ma RCD and space for two mcb's.
Third question is, what would be a suitable way of feeding the garage CU? And a suitable means of isolation?
My thoughts were to double up the tails in to the load side of the main isolator with the existing CU and to terminate the earth in to the earth bar in the existing CU.
Another option which is possible would be to split the existing tails between the 100 fuse and the existing CU and surface clip to the garage CU roughly a meter away.The flaw in this is that I would have to remove the main fuse, which is obviously bad practise.
Thank you in advance for any advice
