🔌 Enhance Your Kitchen and Bathroom Installations!

The installation of a new circuit is commonly required during kitchen installations and bathroom installations when high powered equipment such as induction hobs and instant water heaters (showers, under-sink water heaters) or the new installation of hot water equipment such as cylinders or electric boilers are required.

This electrical equipment all draws high currents and so will usually require a dedicated circuit.

📋 Stay Compliant with BS7671:2022 Regulations! 

As of BS7671:2022, the wiring regulations advise that current using equipment with a power output greater than 2kW not be installed on a ring circuit.

This is to prevent overloading ring power circuits and to reduce excessive loading on radial power circuits. (A single 2kW appliance would accommodate for ~50% of the rated loading of a 20A radial circuit.) If this was a continuously loaded appliance it would affect the diversity loading of the circuit.

Most high current equipment will also require a larger rating of protective device and cable to permit the additional current carrying capacity of the circuit.

🔰 Introduction to Consumer Units

A consumer unit, also known as a distribution board, electrical fuse box, fuse board and customer consumer unit usually makes up the origin of a typical domestic installation, and most domestic installations will only have one consumer unit (CU).

This is usually close to where the DNO (Distributed Network Operator, or more simply – your energy suppliers equipment) will be positioned, the CU then brings the supply of electricity into your home and provides a single location to test RCCBs, power down unused circuits or power on tripped circuit breakers or RCCBs.

🛟 Safety and Functionality

Consumer units are in themselves a vital part of safety equipment as well as functional equipment. To be compliant with the latest regulations they will be made of a non-combustible materials such as steel to prevent fires from spreading and will be designed, installed and maintained in such a way as to ensure safe, reliable operation.

🛡️ Importance of Proper Installation

Poorly installed, designed and maintained CUs can be susceptible to arcing, overheating and fires. Consumer unit terminations should be torqued to the manufacturers instructions and equipment inside a consumer unit should be matched as per the manufactures guidelines and should be rated for the design currents intended to be carried.

🛠️ Procedure for Consumer Unit Replacement

Replacing a consumer unit requires an EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report) or thorough inspection to be completed before the old consumer unit can be removed, one reason for this is to minimise the chance of problem tripping from RCCBs due to excessive earth leakage currents, or borrowed neutrals etc.

📝 Completion and Documentation

The removal and replacement of a consumer unit will usually take a better part of a day depending on the size of the installation and upon completion you should be provided with an EIC (Electrical Installation Certificate) detailing the installation configuration, schedule(s) of inspections and schedule(s) of circuit details and test results. An EIC is not valid without all of the above information.

🔌 Understanding Consumer Units

A consumer unit, also known as a distribution board, electrical fuse box, fuse board and customer consumer unit usually makes up the origin of a typical domestic installation, and most domestic installations will only have one consumer unit (CU).

🛡️ Ensuring Safety with Consumer Units

This is usually close to where the DNO (Distributed Network Operator, or more simply – your energy suppliers equipment) will be positioned, the CU then brings the supply of electricity into your home and provides a single location to test RCCBs, power down unused circuits or power on tripped circuit breakers or RCCBs.

Consumer units are in themselves a vital part of safety equipment as well as functional equipment. To be compliant with the latest regulations they will be made of a non-combustible materials such as steel to prevent fires from spreading and will be designed, installed and maintained in such a way as to ensure safe, reliable operation.

🔥 Risks of Poorly Maintained Consumer Units

Poorly installed, designed and maintained CUs can be susceptible to arcing, overheating and fires. Consumer unit terminations should be torqued to the manufacturers instructions and equipment inside a consumer unit should be matched as per the manufactures guidelines and should be rated for the design currents intended to be carried.

⚡ Installing Additional Consumer Units

For an already existing property a common need to install an additional consumer unit, sometimes referred to as a sub distribution board may be for power to an extension that may be separate from the house, such as for renting, or for power to a garden shed installation for power and lighting, an additional (but small) CU is also sometimes required for the installation of an EV charge point.

📝 Documentation and Certification

The installation of a consumer unit will usually take a better part of a day depending on the size of the installation and upon completion you should be provided with an EIC (Electrical Installation Certificate) detailing the installation configuration, schedule(s) of inspections and schedule(s) of circuit details and test results. An EIC is not valid without all of the above information.

⚡️ Electrical Installation Deterioration 

An electrical installation is subject to wear and tear as environmental factors and electrical energy have a degrading effect on an installation, other installation factors can also degrade an electrical installation, such as polystyrene, polystyrene insulation in contact with PVC insulation can cause the plasticisers in the cable insulation to migrate to the polystyrene, movement of a cable that’s been in contact with polystyrene can cause the insulation to crumble and come apart from the copper cable it is there to protect.

🏚️ Challenges of Aging Installations 

As electrical installations age, and additions and alterations need to be made to meet the ever changing needs of different occupiers or technological requirements, these additions and alterations can become messy, difficult to maintain and sometimes dangerous to keep in service.

🏠 The Case for Property Rewire 

Due to these reasons, sometimes a property rewire is a much needed answer to an electrical installation that under some circumstances could be on it’s way to nearly a century (100!) years old or more.

⚠️ Future-Conscious Choices for Safety 

Obviously our electrical demands, and requirements of today are far different that 100 years ago, so an electrical installation rewire can sometimes be the safest, future conscious choice when considering the continual use of the electrical installation.

🔌 Partial Rewires: Targeted Electrical Solutions

Similar to a full rewire, however partial rewires may only concern a certain circuit, or section of a property that may be in need of attention if for example, fire damage has rendered the electrical installation in sections of a property unusable, or certain circuits are no longer fit for purpose due to changes in fixed equipment or portable equipment.

⚡ Strategic Upgrades: Enhancing Electrical Systems

The rewire of part of an electrical installation may also include the alteration of certain circuits, if for example a radial circuit extending out into part of a garden installation was either unable to meet safety requirements, or was anticipating future upgrades; it may be valuable to rewire the existing radial circuit, and provide a new way in the consumer unit for an additional distribution circuit for the future expansion of the garden installation.

🔌 Ensuring Electrical Safety and Functionality

Accessories and equipment such as:

• socket outlets
• light switches
• isolation switches
• fused connection units
• extractor fans
• pull cords
• USB sockets
• CAT ethernet ports

⚡ Prioritizing Usability and Safety

Can suffer permanent damage that may crack or otherwise impair the safety of users intending to use the electrical installation. Electrical accessories may also be intended to be upgraded, for example to add USB outlets to plug sockets, or to replace old stiff light switches.

Usability and safety are key factors when provisioning electrical accessories and ensuring installed accessories are free from damage and are in good working order is vital.

🔒 Ensuring Safety in Shared Spaces

Certain occupancy arrangements such as rented or shared spaces may require some installation equipment, such as washing machines, dishwashers, ovens etc. to be permanently installed via an isolation switch and unswitched outlet plate to prevent theft, accidental unplugging or trailing cables.

⚡ Enhancing Safety and Continuity

It can be important to make sure that some items of fixed equipment are permanently and safely connected to the electrical installation in a way that improves safety and improves continuity of service.

🔌 Preventing Hazards through Cable Replacement

Similar to a partial or full rewire, cable can become damaged – this could be due to electrical faults such as arcing or overloading, or due to environmental effects such as rodents, cold, heat, non-compatible materials or fire.

🛠️ Replacing Damaged Cabling

Replacing damaged cabling most commonly won’t include new circuit breakers or a change in requirements for the circuit and the cable would generally be switched for a like-for-like cable, along the same route, taking care to ensure the new cable is adequately protected against the future environmental factors it will be subjected to.

⚠️ Safety Concerns with Flexible Cables

It could also include the replacement of flexible cables that feed fixed or portable current using equipment, as severe damage of degradation of these cables, which are usually accessible to pets and small family members could cause serious harm and present a hazard with a very high risk.

💪 Making Additions Safely

It may be necessary to provide more lighting points, say in a garage, where it has been partially turned into a workshop or pottery room; or there may be a requirement to extend a power circuit to provide additional outlets for portable equipment, such as laptop chargers, kettles or TV equipment.

✅ Checking Compliance

It’s important to ensure that these extensions don’t effect the safety of the already existing installation or the functioning of the circuits protective devices.

🦺 Keeping Safety Relevant

As requirements change and the needs of the electrical installation evolve, the installation needs to be adapted and changed to provide power and lighting for these new requirements, alterations and additions to an electrical installation commonly come in the form of power or lighting to external parts of the property, such as outdoor sockets, garden lighting, or extension of power circuits into building additions such as loft space conversions or conservatories requiring fixed power and lighting.

⏱️ Improving Installations

Alterations and additions go beyond what is required of extensions to circuits by usually providing some alternative use and functionality to a circuit, such as the addition of a fused connection unit off of a radial circuit to provide outside sockets for power to the garden, or front drive.

🏡 Weathering the Weather

Extension to garden power and lighting are similar to alterations and additions.

However it’s important to remember that the environmental factors that outdoors equipment will be subject to, and as such will require different levels of IK (Impact) and IP (Ingress of water and foreign bodies) protection. Equipment will need to be suitably selected and installed to ensure it’s safe to operate in outdoor environments.

🍹 Keeping the Garden Party Lights On

It’s common to provide a fused spur connection from a power ring or radial circuit to extend an installation for garden power or lighting, however depending on the requirements and size of the extensions it may be preferable to provide a separate dedicated circuit for power and for lighting, or provide a distribution circuit from the CU to a sub-distribution board located elsewhere in the property, where it is better located to supply the outside installation.