Fuse box advice

Street · 21 Dec 2015 at 23:40

Lumeycom said:
I can see plenty wrong in that picture, some reasonably serious some not. Wouldn't take long for a decent spark to work out what needs doing.

What are the serious problems, just out of interest?

I got some better pics of things today, anyone got any idea how old the cutout could be? SP Energy just said "very old".

Here is some of the wiring throughout the house. I've been under a few of the floorboards and up in the loft and it all looks in good condition and well routed like below. I'm guessing it was all rewired when the extension was done about 20 years or so ago.

LeeUK · 22 Dec 2015 at 00:02

Green box is probably from the 1950s or earlier.

Syla5 · 22 Dec 2015 at 09:06

Mine was 1950's street. The black leakage you can see coming from the green box I believe is tar that is used as an isolator. For the sake of a couple of phone calls there is no point not getting it done for free.

Also for the purpose of future proofing your house if you want to add a circuit or indeed just want more capacity then there is nothing wrong with upgrading your main fuseboard at all!i did mine for that reason.

SilverTongue · 22 Dec 2015 at 09:16

BadMojo said:
We're (BG) not allowed to change meters when confronted with metal-clad cutouts. We report them to the DNO for replacement.

So it's a very good idea to get it changed, especially when you're rewiring the house anyway.

Is that your gas pipe to right of the cutout?

had a customer moaning about that yesterday. told them that you guys wouldn't call dno out for nothing

topgun06 · 22 Dec 2015 at 09:24

That's all looking very similar to mine apart from the green box thing.

Slowly I'm getting mine all rewired, two rooms done so far.

Street · 22 Dec 2015 at 09:31

Syla5 said:
Mine was 1950's street. The black leakage you can see coming from the green box I believe is tar that is used as an isolator. For the sake of a couple of phone calls there is no point not getting it done for free.

Already booked in for the 7th January! Luckily they had that date free as I'm off then getting new doors and carpets fitted.

Syla5 · 22 Dec 2015 at 11:10

Street said:
Already booked in for the 7th January! Luckily they had that date free as I'm off then getting new doors and carpets fitted.

Might be worth calling your energy provider for a self isolator setup as well and see if you can get them in on the same day or soon after. (unless that white box above your main fuseboard is already a self isolator?)

john_s · 22 Dec 2015 at 13:29

Syla5 said:
(unless that white box above your main fuseboard is already a self isolator?)

It looks more like a single way consumer unit.

LeeUK · 22 Dec 2015 at 16:32

john_s said:
It looks more like a single way consumer unit.

Yep, it is basically just another one of the rewireable fuses but on it's own. I also have an extra one like this which powers my the oven and hob. Only difference is mine has it's own tails from the meter, and not linked from the main fuse box like the OP's.

£15 · 22 Dec 2015 at 18:28

SilverTongue said:
had a customer moaning about that yesterday. told them that you guys wouldn't call dno out for nothing

We like an easy life and don't make such calls if we can help it. But at the end of the day, there are very good reasons to do so and we do. It's always safety first.

Street · 23 Dec 2015 at 09:55

LeeUK said:
Yep, it is basically just another one of the rewireable fuses but on it's own. I also have an extra one like this which powers my the oven and hob. Only difference is mine has it's own tails from the meter, and not linked from the main fuse box like the OP's.

I think that's what mine goes to as well, the oven is on it's own circuit so I'm assuming it goes there.

Street · 7 Jan 2016 at 11:17

One shiny new cut out installed today..

Going to ring my provider now and see if they'll fit an isolator, then ring the electrician to get a new consumer unit.

Not a great time for all this going on as I had to call National Grid out last week to change the gas isolator as I had a pipe leak upstairs. I've now been without gas for a week as I need all new pipe work to replace the old leaky steel stuff.

Nikumba · 7 Jan 2016 at 11:28

Street said:
I'm hoping I don't need a full rewire as I could do without the added expense at the moment

Depends on your sparky, when I renovated my house, to save costs he allowed us to put in the new wiring but to leave it unterminated, he would check the cabling, fix a plug, we also had a new consumer unit fitted cost about £350 all in to have done.

Granted wasn't a full re-wire but doing work like chasing out walls, running cables did save me some money

Kimbie

LeeUK · 13 Jan 2016 at 15:44

Wondering how old my DNO cut out is, It's got ISCO Series 3 on the casing and Henley on the fuse cover. Also my supply cable appears to come in through the wall from next door!

Fuse box is the old rewireable Wylex box like the OP but with the actual old wire fuses and not the trip upgrade type.

Beer_MonsterUK · 13 Jan 2016 at 18:43

Hmmm, just seen this thread.

Just get a qualified guy in to do an EICR.

Just because it's got rewireable fuses in doesn't means it's unsafe. BS3036 fuses are still mentioned within the regs as suitable protective devices.

If there is no residual current protection doesn't automatically give it a Non-satisfactory on an EICR, just that it doesn't conform with the current regulations, any NEW work needs to conform to the current regulations.

Entropy · 13 Jan 2016 at 19:38

Street said:
One shiny new cut out installed today..

Going to ring my provider now and see if they'll fit an isolator, then ring the electrician to get a new consumer unit.

Not a great time for all this going on as I had to call National Grid out last week to change the gas isolator as I had a pipe leak upstairs. I've now been without gas for a week as I need all new pipe work to replace the old leaky steel stuff.

Out of interest did electricity north west charge for this and how long did it take? I have a very similar looking cutout that seems to be making intermitant buzzing noises and could really do with being replaced, have an old rotating disc electricity meter due to be swapped out at the end of the month, seeing as the suppliers don't like doing this with old cutouts it seems even more pressing.

PhillyDee · 13 Jan 2016 at 19:46

Keeping our disc meter. Talking to a bloke who does meters, those new ones aint great.... German, only designed to last 10 years and cost a whopping £12 per piece. He told me to keep the disc type as they are still the most reliable. He has seen a few of the new ones smoldering....