Ok. Muppets was a bit strong but you do have to wonder what logic they used to vote this in. I would however like to see more transparency.
Ammendment 3 Consumer Units
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Manator
©Honorary Essex Boy™
There were two options
Option one
retrain all electricians who installed those consumer units that poor workmanship was the cause, and bring the manufacturers to account if the poor workmanship was attributed to manufacturing processes.
Option two
Change the material of the consumer units so that in the event of such fires the impact was greatly reduced or contained for longer.
Option two in simple terms was a logical step as it would be impossible to trace all those involved, as well as the costs which when we talk about safety should not be an issue, sadly it is.
We all assume that preventing the cause of fires is the first priority and the only way to stop fires. If this was the case we would not require fire alarms. You can only do so much, and fires can start for all kinds of reasons. When they do, all we can do is to try and limit its impact and do our best to protect life as best we can. The lessons learned over the next few years will undoubtedly provide good reading.
Option one
retrain all electricians who installed those consumer units that poor workmanship was the cause, and bring the manufacturers to account if the poor workmanship was attributed to manufacturing processes.
Option two
Change the material of the consumer units so that in the event of such fires the impact was greatly reduced or contained for longer.
Option two in simple terms was a logical step as it would be impossible to trace all those involved, as well as the costs which when we talk about safety should not be an issue, sadly it is.
We all assume that preventing the cause of fires is the first priority and the only way to stop fires. If this was the case we would not require fire alarms. You can only do so much, and fires can start for all kinds of reasons. When they do, all we can do is to try and limit its impact and do our best to protect life as best we can. The lessons learned over the next few years will undoubtedly provide good reading.
Option 3
get stats on the actual units that failed and see if there was any links between them! I.e who actually made them
Actually, if. They voted that in then they are muppets ,!
WTF vote in a reg that is a kneejerk reaction to them allowing 5ww,?
Either make the regs right, or stop changing them.to allow DIY Bob to do the work.
***** IET, getting more like JIB by the day,
WTF vote in a reg that is a kneejerk reaction to them allowing 5ww,?
Either make the regs right, or stop changing them.to allow DIY Bob to do the work.
***** IET, getting more like JIB by the day,
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Manator
©Honorary Essex Boy™
I have asked for this information elsewhere and have not to date had any reply.
I beg to differ, one lad I had working with myself for a short time did one of them "look at my pictures album" and gained level 3 mostly by showing work he himself had not carried out.
pewter
Conspiracy Theorist™
all the fires in consumer units, is there statistics on who did the bad work to cause the fire. I would have thought the builder, kitchen fitter, alarm installer are all more likely to have caused the fire rather then a an electrician or domestic installer.
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Option 4
Go back to old school engineering and insist all main switches etc have TWO screws per termination.
Option 4
Go back to old school engineering and insist all main switches etc have TWO screws per termination.
Go back to old school engineering and insist all main switches etc have TWO screws per termination.
Option 4
Go back to old school engineering and insist all main switches etc have TWO screws per termination.
Still down to the electrician that walked away knowing the termination were not right.
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Todays find on an EICR
It was either the incoming neutral onto the busbar, or the first circuit (oven) that's beem getting hot and bothered.
Note the CU had not burned the house down, and a metal CU would have made no difference, it would still have got hot and bothered.
Both screws still turned, and both appeared to be tight, neither cable was noticeably loose in it's terminal.
So why did it get hot and bothered?
I still maintain busbars with 2 screws per terminal is the answer.
Sorry about the lousy picture taken with phone camera in a dark cupboard
It was either the incoming neutral onto the busbar, or the first circuit (oven) that's beem getting hot and bothered.
Note the CU had not burned the house down, and a metal CU would have made no difference, it would still have got hot and bothered.
Both screws still turned, and both appeared to be tight, neither cable was noticeably loose in it's terminal.
So why did it get hot and bothered?
I still maintain busbars with 2 screws per terminal is the answer.
Sorry about the lousy picture taken with phone camera in a dark cupboard
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Rob_the_rich
Sock Muncher
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Hi Manator I was under the impression that you would still need to reduce the gap(s) around the cables whether trunking was used or not. See figure 6 in this wiring matters http://electrical.theiet.org/wiring-matters/55/consumer-units/index.cfm it says the gaps should be filled to ensure " the escape of flames to the surroundings of the cabinet or enclosure or into conduits trunking or ducting is minimised"
This BEAMA tech sheet http://www.beama.org.uk/resourceLibrary/technical-update-enhanced-fire-safety-for-consumer-units.html advises any gap should be max 1mm for top horizontal surface entries and 2.5mm for side and bottom. But It says that conduit and trunking can be used to minimise the gaps! perhaps it means metal conduits and trunking?
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