WIFI devices in a metal consumer unit.

[LawVal]

Good morning. I intend to replace my oil boiler with electric and a qualified electrician will be doing the job. I see there are lots of din rail mounted WIFI devices such as meters, switches, timers etc and I am considering asking the electrician to incorporate such devices within the new consumer unit feeding the boiler, immersions and controls. This is for 'smart home' remote monitoring and interest in energy consumption purposes.
Anyone had experience of these devices within a metal consumer unit where the WIFI signal may be proved ineffective due to the metal enclosure? I appreciate strength of WIFI signal may come into play here.
I assume a plastic enclosure is not allowed. Thank you.

 

[GroovyG]

Thanks for thoughts GroovyG. The electric boiler is actually 6kW so the set up is B50 MCB in main CU which supplies the Boiler CU/DB (depending upon what we want to call it). The contents of the Boiler board is B32 for 6kW boiler, B16 for Immersion and a couple of B6's for controls and boiler cupboard light plus a couple of din rail smart meters / timers / switches. I propose a CU for the boiler board simply for convenience of mounting the kit but then thought about the WIFI devices within the metal enclosure perhaps not being a clever idea. The electrician can decide what he is comfortable with but like you say, there are plenty of electrical components / devices within plastic or GRP enclosures. The work will be getting done next month so I will respond with final arrangement / performance.

Good point - I did see "electric boiler" but misinterpreted. As such, yes, it will be a sub board.
Perhaps the other thing to consider is that the inclusion of any devices in the DB that are not approved for such inclusion by the board's original manufacturer will negate the type approval of the entire assembly. In the light of the currents involved, this should indeed be treated as a DB and be of non combustible material, as the potential for the overheating of any poor connections is considerable.
The solution could be to provide a separate enclosure for the clever stuff, which could be of insulating material. The only tricky bit would be the siting of any high current relays/contactors, unless they're already built into the boiler itself. Sorry, my experience doesn't extend to these beasts.

 

[LawVal]

Good point - I did see "electric boiler" but misinterpreted. As such, yes, it will be a sub board.
Perhaps the other thing to consider is that the inclusion of any devices in the DB that are not approved for such inclusion by the board's original manufacturer will negate the type approval of the entire assembly. In the light of the currents involved, this should indeed be treated as a DB and be of non combustible material, as the potential for the overheating of any poor connections is considerable.
The solution could be to provide a separate enclosure for the clever stuff, which could be of insulating material. The only tricky bit would be the siting of any high current relays/contactors, unless they're already built into the boiler itself. Sorry, my experience doesn't extend to these beasts.

Thanks for further thoughts GroovyG. I have a WIFI meter so I think I will temporarily hook it up in a metal enclosure and see how the WIFI connection performs, hopefully it will be good and therefore I would proceed with a metal CU which the electrician will be happy with.

 

[Avo Mk8]

Thanks for further thoughts GroovyG. I have a WIFI meter so I think I will temporarily hook it up in a metal enclosure and see how the WIFI connection performs, hopefully it will be good and therefore I would proceed with a metal CU which the electrician will be happy with.

It might be worth thinking where you might go with wifi devices and home automation in the future.
If you purchase random wifi switch products at the start, you may end up with a plethora of apps on your phone/tablet to control things, typically using Chinese software such as Tuya, which is not well liked by all.
If you want a more integrated approach, where you might perhaps be able to open a single app and control whatever you need from there, you might need to be selective with the hardware.
Current offerings include: Apple Home, Google, Philips Hue, Amazon Alexa, Nest, Samsung Smartthings
I think most of these use a common home automation standard called "Matter", so this might be of interest.

View: https://youtu.be/Z4n5mg0KmKs?feature=shared


I haven't kept up with developments, but I think if you are going to grow a 'smart home' system, you need to consider compatibility of the hardware you choose.