Shower upgrade with slave consumer unit

[Frazer Gould]

I am upgrading my shower room and will be getting a qualified electrician to do the work but I want some advice so I can ask sensible questions!
I will be using a previous feed for an electric shower from the consumer board (down graded amps wise, which he has said is acceptable) and want to have a small "slave" consumer unit for a fan heater, extractor and lights. I want it as small as possible. It can be mounted in an area outside zone 1 and 2 but there will be potentially some humidity. I have seen a Plastic unit rated at IP44 and some metal units rated at IP40. It seems more sensible to ask for a plastic one with better protection but the regs say consumer units should be metal. Are plastic units, which are still available from reputable wholesalers, legal in this situation?

 

[westward10]

No idea why you want a consumer unit in the shower room.

 

[Octopus]

You're in a very optimistic mood this morning Murdoch!

"optimistic" can be used in many ways

 

[Des 56]

Consumer unit in Bathroom?


Trying to design a system whilst not understanding or knowing the requirements for the feeding and distribution of the loads is not going to be one of your brightest ideas

 

[DPG]

This is possibly going to be an even better thread than the SWA sizing one yesterday.

 

[Pete999]

Get the Electrician who is doing the work, to design and purchase all the equipment needed, after all he should know what he is doing.

Yes I agree, with your optimistic response

 

[Frazer Gould]

Spoke to my sparks today and following the comments to my thread I questioned the position of the slave CU. He said that it is outside zone 2 and is therefore OK where I want it but because the shower room is not detached from the main house he must use a metal CU even thought he agreed that in reality it, in my particular position, is probably not as good as an IP44 plastic one - but "regs is regs!" Thanks everyone for your input because I could at least question him with some knowledge of the wider view.

There will be those out there who may not agree with my approach but my daughter who lives in a 200 year old house in Cardiff was persuaded that as the earth was not to modern standard (the electricians words) the house needed rewiring. When he had finished he said that it was normal to pay then he would provide the BC certificate. He didn't and when BC were asked what she could do she was told to get another recommended electrician to check the work. It was condemned as dangerous and it was only because she had a 4 week old baby that he did not cut the power immediately. She won her case in the small claims court but of course he didn't pay back her money. £5k later a properly qualified electrician redid the whole job and issued the proper certificates. Hence my desire to at least be in the position where I can ask the right questions.

 

[Spoon]

If you are going down that route then how about getting the better IP rate plastic CU and get a metal enclosure to go round it.

 

[Octopus]

Seeing as the OP chooses to restrict who can see his profile, maybe an idea for others to read this informative post:

New member seeking qualified advice. - https://www.electriciansforums.co.uk/threads/new-member-seeking-qualified-advice.168152/#post-1447573

 

[westward10]

So you ask questions, get correct answers but still ignore them. What any of this has to do with your daughter's situation is beyond me.

 

[Dave OCD]

Ok Frazer

If a Consumer Unit is absolutely necessary and it really has to go in the described location I'd suggest this - I.P. 65 rated and 3 usable ways but the correct MCBs would have to be purchased separately.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/british-...-shower-consumer-unit/1336j?_requestid=513082

 

[Octopus]

This has got to be the most stupid idea I've seen on here for a while .....

 

[MDJ]

Absolutely NOT doing it myself.

LOL, yeah alright.

 

[Des 56]

Absolutely NOT doing it myself.

LOL, yeah alright.

At least he has some novel ideas for when he performs the surgery

 

[Baddegg]

I still don’t understand why?

 

[DPG]

I still don’t understand why?

Consumer unit in bathroom = bad idea generally due to damp/steam etc.

And not needed - the shower can be fed direct, and the other items can be tapped off the existing circuits.

In my opinion anyway.