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Ring Main at Consumer unit

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
My daughter has just had an electrical safety check done and I suspect that the electrician has been over zeleous..

Would anyone care to comment.


There is no grommet where the meter tails enter the consumer unit and the outer insulation stops just short of the knockout.

He has graded this C1.   Now my opinion is that that does not present an  an immediate threat to the safety of personell

It needs fixing but surely only a C2?


More intriguing.  He gives a C3 to the ring circuit because the two legs enter the consumer unit through separate knock outs.  I can't find that in the regs


And finally an old chestnut which has been discussed before.   A C3 because two radial "circuits" are served by a single breaker..  I have always argued that the definition of a circuit is that it is served by a single breaker.  Certainly if both radials were brought to a junction box outside the CU and then connected to the breaker by a single cable it would meet the definition of a radial..


Thanks for your attention

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  • 0
    dcbwhaley:

    No.  I am merely asking for a second opinion on his conclusions.  If he is confident of therm that should cause him no pain.


    I have spoken to him and he is adamant that the missing grommet where the tails enter the CU is a C1 and that we should have the DNO disconnect the the power to the house until this can be sorted.  His reasoning is if the my daughter was standing on a ladder with his hand on the consumer unit when the insulation finally gave way there was both a risk of electrocution and of falling

    My advice to herr is not to touch the CU until the problem is resolved..  And there is a bed for her at dcb-towers if she wishes to follow the EICR advice

     


    So now you will not be standing on a ladder touching what is presumably a metal enclosure consumer unit eh? Is it metal?


    Is the cable insulation tight up against the metal?


    Me, I would pull the main fuse, get the problem sorted out and later get U.K.P.N. to attend to reseal the main fuse explaining that we had an emergency.


    I have just repaired a similar deficiency where a 16.0mm2 T&E cable entered a metal enclosure with no grommet in a consumer unit. Unsheathed red and black conductors were visible, and at a push touchable. That situation had existed for perhaps 50 years. Nobody was shocked or killed in that period.


    Of course in some situations, a live metal consumer unit may liven up all of the exposed conductive parts in the installation as well. So you could have live appliances cases.


    Z.




     


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  • 0
    dcbwhaley:

    No.  I am merely asking for a second opinion on his conclusions.  If he is confident of therm that should cause him no pain.


    I have spoken to him and he is adamant that the missing grommet where the tails enter the CU is a C1 and that we should have the DNO disconnect the the power to the house until this can be sorted.  His reasoning is if the my daughter was standing on a ladder with his hand on the consumer unit when the insulation finally gave way there was both a risk of electrocution and of falling

    My advice to herr is not to touch the CU until the problem is resolved..  And there is a bed for her at dcb-towers if she wishes to follow the EICR advice

     


    So now you will not be standing on a ladder touching what is presumably a metal enclosure consumer unit eh? Is it metal?


    Is the cable insulation tight up against the metal?


    Me, I would pull the main fuse, get the problem sorted out and later get U.K.P.N. to attend to reseal the main fuse explaining that we had an emergency.


    I have just repaired a similar deficiency where a 16.0mm2 T&E cable entered a metal enclosure with no grommet in a consumer unit. Unsheathed red and black conductors were visible, and at a push touchable. That situation had existed for perhaps 50 years. Nobody was shocked or killed in that period.


    Of course in some situations, a live metal consumer unit may liven up all of the exposed conductive parts in the installation as well. So you could have live appliances cases.


    Z.




     


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