Ring Main at Consumer unit

Depends where you live and age of property for isolators. You can get isolators fitted by your energy supplier. The DNO only go as far as the head the supplier to the meter or isolator if fitted. Only certain DNOs will permit main fuse removal but will require resealing.

I know what you mean Zoom. I have a friend who is a NIC approved contractor and his comments of "circuits doubled" in the consumer unit causes me always to inform him there is no such thing. I keep reminding him that a radial can take any form, not just from fuseway then one to tother to tother etc till the end but also teed and treed in any config including two or more conductors in the fuseway . He`s happy with all of that but considers doubling at the fuseway a no no yet doubling immediately after the consumer unit (say the first fitting) is OK. I realise he`s unhappy that people often get two lighting circuits (say upstairs and downstairs) then combine them to be one circuit is a bit naughty (not good practice usually) but if someone redesigns it as such then it becomes only one circuit. 

The word "minimise" when talking about circuits is a misnomer too though because the only way to minimise is to put each point on its own circuit and none of us do that. Spreading ccts out to reduce disruption when losing a cct is what we usually do. and again its up to the cct designer, not always good designs though I`m afraid and I do realise that is what he is trying to avoid. I must admit when I see such I always think "has someone put two ccts in one fuseway as a cheap way of freeing up a way for something else thereby comprising , a little, a decent design. It often is, although I`d avoid the comment "circuits doubled"

I'm afraid your "friend" should NOT be an approved contractor. Reason: complete lack of basic knowledge. Just imagine his EICR, total disaster!

Zoomup. Interesting comment, do you work for a manufacturer of RCBOs? I have a split CU and MCBs in my own house. I have had no nuisance trips, or in fact any at all in the last 5 years, except occasionally when I plug in my tool transformer! Of course my installation and appliances have no faults either, this nuisance trip thing is due to faults and bad appliances. Why go mad and add more RCDs for no extra protection from anything? "Oh dear my freezer went off because it was faulty, or the kettle was", is surely a good thing? It seems you want to perpetuate bad practice which is to ignore problems. A tripped RCD needs investigation and understanding, it is the first indication that something is not quite right. An RCBO might trip and not be noticed if the circuit has nothing else attached.That is actually a problem! If you have 10 RCDs in an installation rather than one the chance of a failure is ten times as great. Is that a good thing? I am not sure that it is.


Just in case you think I only have "nice" loads, this is not true. I have 4KW VSDs, all the usual appliances, RF filters, loads of SM psus and computers. Earth leakage is still < 10mA.

And you shall be told. :-)

The sheathing has been cut short by about 20mm and the coloured insulation is visible. No copper is visible and there is not room to get a dcb-standard finger into the knockout

Supposition but I suspect that at some time  they needed another circuit and didn't have a spare then combined the too lighting circuits to free a way.

My email is above. Simply replace the " (at) " with @. A good scan or photo would be excellent. Thanks

I am not an EICR trained person but most of the codes are either obviously right or obviously wrong.  Here I have only questioned the faults about which I am doubtful.

Yes the installation is shoddy and needs some remedial work but the first priority is to ensure that it is safe.   Then I will organise a staged upgrade starting with the CU,

I have has consumer units changed in two properties and in both cases the electricians - different ones - kept the tails live.  They said that dealing with the DNO was too much hassle.