What do you mean by "the shower Box" ?
Also, by "not working" do you mean you have replaced the fuse wire in the re-wire-able fuse cartridge and it still doesn't work? If so Please dear lord consult an electrician !
Fitting an RCD/RCBO for a shower?
- Thread starter ExecutorKevin
- Start date
What do you mean by "the shower Box" ?
Also, by "not working" do you mean you have replaced the fuse wire in the re-wire-able fuse cartridge and it still doesn't work? If so Please dear lord consult an electrician !
Well the whole lot is unsafe by modern standards,
Like someone said, get one of those garage rcd units and replace the White box with that.
You could rip the lot out, fit an 80amp mains isolator (£30 eBay) after the meters junction box,
Then get a populated consumer unit from screwfix (£60 ish) to replace all those plug in fuses
Google "how do I fit a consumer unit" and do some reading on an electricians forum for tips.
None of which is a good idea, you still need (at some point) to get an electrician to sign off on the work done if you plan on selling the house, so leave it alone until you can afford to do it properly.
Edit. Lights upstairs
Have you pulled all the fuses to check if any are blown?
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Associate
Ill put it this way, physically yes you could just replace the wiring for the shower but I personally would have the entire house checked. I'm not trying to scare you or force you to spend your money but I do all my work to my highest standard to ensure legally I am covered and that the installation will be safe and I would not just fix the shower.
Based on that last statement I believe that you need to get a competant electrician in.
I think the Mod's should review allowing to people to post questions like these as medical threads are not allowed, and I believe electrical problems are much more dangerous as you have the potential to kill other people.
none of the fuses are blown, but the black box on the right have 3 fuses but the one on the left seems to do nothing and I can't work it out which I have borrowed fuses for my other house. I have 2 semi detached houses joined together and the other house has this old timer thing for a meter and the same fuse boxes, but about five years ago I called a sparky in to fit those bubble bath things and he went into the loft for the electrics and said someone had used 'VIR' and aluminium wiring (god knows what that means) to fit lights and a socket in to make use of the space and needed to be replaced immediately but have never had time, but then I had the money.
Without wanting to sound like an arse, I don't think he should be pulling a Series 7 1361 fuse, let alone google "how to fit a consumer unit" !
ExecutorKevin,
The black box on the right must be doing something, its where your main feed for your shower is coming from :S ?
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Soldato
- Joined
- 12 Dec 2002
- Posts
- 2,950
Seriously mate going by that picture I would get a local sparks in to look that over.
That looks VERY bad.
That looks VERY bad.
No idea, I don't think I'll touch anything, its nothing like fitting a shower or changing a fuse, I'll get a sparky in first thing tomorrow.
Thank you guys (including the guy who called me an arse)!
Thank you guys (including the guy who called me an arse)!
Well yeh, I have to agree with you, I did say it wasn't a good idea
I'm not an electrician but I'm happy enough to do work like this because I'll spend a very long time researching exactly what to do.
The OP is asking too many basic questions so I don't get a warm fuzzy from this
I'm with joemo13, this thread is possibly dangerous and likely to get the OP hurt.
Never mind the legal nightmare from having unqualified work done on a house.
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oh mis read that sorry!
I will do some research on the subject but will also get a sparky in asap.
I will do some research on the subject but will also get a sparky in asap.
Soldato
Yay the right answer!
Exactly what I was going to suggest - replace that old white box top-right (that's your 'shower box' right?) with something modern with an RCD just as oneale90 suggests.Only about £30. You could fit it yourself, but with all due respect you clearly shouldn't as you dont know what you're doing. And besides if you want to fit it yourself legally, you really need to notify your local building control, pay their fees, then probably pay again to have it all tested. It would be cheaper to get an electrician. An electrician is not immediately compelled to update your entire installation, but does have to do a few minimum checks, e.g. is the main bonding (from water and gas pipes to main earth terminal) up to scratch.
EDIT: Oh I missed about 100 replies having dinner lol. What?! You're upstairs lights dont work and it's not just a fuse, and you still have old VIR cables?! Um I think you really really do need an electrician pretty quick. If you can afford two houses you can afford not to have a potentially lethal dodgy electrical installation, right?
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Soldato
1) 8.5kw is about 36A, so that 30A re-wireable is undersized
2) It looks like that 1 way board is tapped off the incomming isolator in the main board via 6mm twin which isn't really right.
3) Noting no. 2 above, How do you propose to isolate it to swap it for an RCD shower unit (I hope no one here is as foolish as to suggest a DIYer should touch the cutout)
4) I'd not go to CEF unless I could help it!
5) The advice to google for 'consumer unit replacement' and then pick up a board from screwfix is quite frankly dangerous
2) It looks like that 1 way board is tapped off the incomming isolator in the main board via 6mm twin which isn't really right.
3) Noting no. 2 above, How do you propose to isolate it to swap it for an RCD shower unit (I hope no one here is as foolish as to suggest a DIYer should touch the cutout)
4) I'd not go to CEF unless I could help it!
5) The advice to google for 'consumer unit replacement' and then pick up a board from screwfix is quite frankly dangerous
1) Which is why I suggested a 40A mcb
2)The fuse box it comes out of has what looks like 2 30A red re-wireables in, one being for what looks likes the ring main, the other for the shower. Also 6-mm is fine for upto a maximum of 9Kw ( or slightly over if we're splitting hairs)
3) Simply turn Off the Board via the Incoming Isolator
4) True but I know they do the Proteus stuff
5) Absolutely, whole heartedly Agree
Pfft, that wasn't all that was said though was it? Stop picking out selective quotes to look horrified. Plenty of people are capable of replacing a CU to 17th, it just transpired the OP wasn't one of them. Like I pointed out twice already...
I think thats what Adam is getting at though Bitslice! I think we can all collectively agree, the OP is competent to carry out the work properly, let alone to the 17Th Ed Regs !
Soldato
I'd bet that you are wrong on point two... what would be the point of feeding a 30A re-wireable switchfuse from a 30A rw-wireable in an adjacent board? I'd hazard a guess that his circuits on the 3 way board are cooker, sockets and lights and the separate unit is piggy backed off the incomming tails.
Even if you *were* right, and it was fed from one of the 30A fuses in the 3 way board, the OP has problems becuase none of those fuseways are designed to take more than a 30A circuit... looks wooden framed as well and mounted to a wooden board (a no, no with those open backed boards unless the optional paxolin backer was fitted)
Even if you *were* right, and it was fed from one of the 30A fuses in the 3 way board, the OP has problems becuase none of those fuseways are designed to take more than a 30A circuit... looks wooden framed as well and mounted to a wooden board (a no, no with those open backed boards unless the optional paxolin backer was fitted)
OK you've made your point (s)! end of thread! I am incompetent at this and haven't tried anything yet so sparky in asap. Luckily I came here for advice first.
Soldato
The answer to that question is, very few non-sparkys are capable of such in the proper manner.
Remember that compliance with BS7671 also requires the relevant inspection, testing and certification. A DIYer is unlikly to have access to the required test instruments, let alone know how to operate them
Soldato
Thats done... yep... but now we want to argue amongst ourselfs
P.S. If you put your location someone on the boards might be able to help you...saves you taking your chances with the yellow pages. I dont know anyone who covers the starship enterprise though (somewhat supprised they used re-wireables on it though
)