Unusual circuit board. Safe or replace?

[Doc Hudson]

"It only points out how few domestic properties you've seen". An absolutely pointless and patronising comment. I had better return my 17 properties as clearly I don't have a clue what I'm doing....

It is NOT a standard (as in typical style of) residential board. And other electricians have told me so.

Everyone else, thanks for info. Should I sort the corrosion before booking EICR?

The comment is neither patronising nor pointless. The first sentence was both for your benefit and for any others reading this thread. To make it clear that there is 'No such thing as a standard consumer unit'. As I would hate to think anyone new to the trade is always going to be expecting a B&Q or Wickes off-the-shelf enclosure if they are doing a domestic alteration.  Irrespective of what any other "electricians"  have told you, anyone who says otherwise probably hasn't been in the trade for very long, or has not done much domestic work.

To clarify a bit, it was not uncommon at all for "acquired" materials to drift from work to an individuals home project. Historically when this country had a thriving manufacturing industry, there was a vast army of industrial maintenance electricians who would 'borrow' a more commercial looking enclosure to fit at home when doing their electrical alterations. Although in a larger enclosure they would typically have correctly rated protective devices for each circuit. (In a similar vein it was not uncommon for those working in the motor trade to bring parts home to do their car maintenance and servicing work).  You also find jobs installed by the builder or DIY which have a smaller enclosure, but half of the circuits have inappropriate or incorrectly rated protective devices because those were the fuses that came in the fully equipped off the shelf board, and they have no idea about correct circuit design. (who else has found the 2.5mm ring circuit put on a 40A MCB, because that's what the board came with, and the customer didn't have an electric shower?).  Then there are the proper electricians, small businesses or larger organisations, who as well as designing bespoke per the job, may also have a surplus stock enclosure left over from a cancelled contract, or just part of a bulk-buy discount, so they decide to use a more robust enclosure in that domestic rewire job to get it off their stock.   

My earlier comments still stand, and the second sentence gave my recommended course of action:  

Nothing strange about that board. There is NO such thing as a typical residential circuit board. (it only points out how few domestic properties you have seen). However what you need to look at is the circuit descriptions and the fuse ratings. Which all look pretty normal for any domestic property.  As has been said it could do with (a) a FULL periodic inspection + condition report AND (b) upgrading to RCBO's instead of single RCD / RCCB.

Doc H.

 

[phil d]

I know it's unlike me, but I'm going to try and pour a bit of oil on these troubled waters, as someone else said, there's no such thing as a 'domestic board', If I wanted to there's nothing to prevent me wiring each individual socket and light in my house on it's own mcb, I could then use a 3 phase board, so I would have enough ways, and use a single phase conversion kit, now you wouldn't expect this in a domestic, but there'd be nothing wrong with it!

Yesterday I spoke on the telephone with a new forum member to give him some advice regarding a contactor, his electrician had said he was unable to source one, I found one in less than a minute, the other spark was trying to find an exact match for a contactor that was over 30 years old.He was young and inexperienced and didn't understand that you could replace say an MEM contactor with a Schneider one. This leads on to a comment I made to another member who despite having almost no experience in the industry has done his 2391 as well as other courses and cannot get a job.My comment was that imo a person with very limited experience has no place taking that exam, as they don't have the experience to understand how things are done.

A lot of misunderstandings are caused by a lack of experience, and this is what appears to be happening a lot these days. 

 

[rapparee]

"It only points out how few domestic properties you've seen". An absolutely pointless and patronising comment. I had better return my 17 properties as clearly I don't have a clue what I'm doing....

It is NOT a standard (as in typical style of) residential board. And other electricians have told me so.

Everyone else, thanks for info. Should I sort the corrosion before booking EICR?

The absolute arrogance of you is astounding.

So you've seen 17 boards then, whoopdey do. 

If you are so great at what you do I'm surprised you need to come on here for free advice, it sounds like you should have enough money to pay for a decent spark to advise you. 

 

[kerching]

The absolute arrogance of you is astounding.

So you've seen 17 boards then, whoopdey do. 

If you are so great at what you do I'm surprised you need to come on here for free advice, it sounds like you should have enough money to pay for a decent spark to advise you. 

I read it differently

i thought the OP had 17 properties and had not seen one like that in any of them 

 

[rapparee]

I read it differently

i thought the OP had 17 properties and had not seen one like that in any of them 

That's exactly the way I read it too.

But one swallow does not a summer make.

Nor 17 consume units an electrician make.

Well you get the general gist of what I was going for there. I never claimed to be that erudite. 

 

[kerching]

Well you get the general gist of what I was going for there. I never claimed to be that erudite. 

I'm tend not to use it any more as it's too expensive. I get the cheaper Epoxy from Lidl or Aldi

This thread should be made a sticky.." :slap

sorry, bad day

 

[OnOff]

Of course it's a standard board just maybe not often fitted in a domestic setting. To prove the point it's easily upgradeable a couple of pics.  (Not done by me, at my son's old uni flat). Schneider RCBOs added. MG btw have been owned by Group Schneider for years just of late they've dropped the MG name and brought it all under the Schneider brand.

 

[Doc Hudson]

I forgot to say earlier:-

32A kitchen 60898 Type B

32A Sockets 60898 Type B

16A Boiler 60898 Type B

6A lights Up  60898 Type B

6A lights down 60898 Type B

32A Cooker 60898 Type C

Assuming the cable sizes are correct and that the Type C, MCB, will meet the cooker disconnections times, what exactly is non-standard re the average domestic installation?

Doc H.