18th Edition Consumer Unit Upgrade. Plus all the other shoddy work we find!!!
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
- Installing a new Hager 14 way spd consumer unit. Once your in the house the client never wants you to leave.
This video is for entertainment purposes only do not attempt to recreate in any way.Always seek professional advice.
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This guy works with such care and diligence and describes everything so well.
This is the first video I’ve seen where an electrician pulls the main fuse! It’s always done by magic on the other videos 🙂👍
Scottinuk it is good to see and it proves a point when you find a lower rated fuse in the labelled fuse holder.
David Canty True that. Always an N/V as we have no idea what’s in there unless opened.
@@skantycanty Good point. Round here they they used looped supplies but all the main fuse carriers have 100A labels. And at leat one house on the end of a looped supply has a power shower.
The 100a is its max capacity not the required fuse size! I take these apart every day and you get 100A, 80A and 60A fairly regularly.
The fuse size should relate to the tail size and also not exceed the supply maximum ...... often you will see a 100A fuse supplying one property with a tail coming off the top of the fuse to supply next door via an 80A in its own cutout! There are areas where the supply daisy chains four properties of one service cable ..... again these are fused down for some strange reason ;0)
Another reason for fusing down is for a high Ze as a temporary measure. They require a fusing factor of 3 so the max Ze you can do this on is not really that high and the DNO do need to come and sort it fairly quickly!
@@skantycanty The holder is labelled for the maximum fuse you can put in it, not the fuse it has in it.
Working my way in to domestic. I really enjoy the longer vids with little to no editing looking for little tips and tricks that only experiance can normally provide. Thanks for all your effort in filming your work.
Well done for not leaving the joint boxes in a state. A lot of people would just leave them alone and pretend they didn't see em. Nice job.
Well we all saw em didn't we 😅
I had an electrician come round to inspect my consumer unit. It was a modern MK unit fitted with MK RCD's in a plastic case.
He told me it was "ILLEGAL" and had to be replaced and if I din't let him do it he would pull the mains fuse and leave me without any power.
I reluctantly agreed and he fitted a similar unit but in a metal case. When the cost started going up and up I got scared and called the police.
They made him return all the original MK box which he had taken away.
This was a distressing experience because I am disabled and needed power for my refrigeration of my injections and to rum my central heating.
It’s only a code 3 which means it does not comply with the regs BS7671 18th edition,
Unless the DB board is placed in the only means of escape then it’s a code 2,which requires improvement usually that’s within 28days.
He had no right to pull the main fuse that’s an offence
Only code 1 faults require immediate action that’s basically stuff like being able to touch live parts, then there is a duty of care to make safe
He should be a member of a regulatory body like NICEIC ect
I strongly recommend that you report his actions to them and or the local government council building control department and trading standards
Excellent video thanks I went to a central heating radiator that was hardly getting warm for no apparent reason. Took the floorboards up and they had notched the joists by about 5 mm by the look of it with a bread knife and hammered the copper pipe flat so as to re fit the floor boards. Madness. Bit off subject I know.
I like the longer format. I’m not in the trades, electrical engineer actually, and find the explanations interesting.
Well, that looked like a wiring system that had "grown organically", as we'd say at my previous employer. (Networking, not electrical) Always nice when you get the go-ahead to blank-slate it all.
Exactly how I lable my cables during a board change. Great minds think alike😉
I thought everyone done it this way... I don't mark the first one as I'm tight and can't spare the ink.
Never seen neutral and earths so tight , wouldn’t like to test that board
Another top video chris can we get more like this super detailed and a joy to watch
Really good work chris, a true pro. A lot of people would've just doubled up the lighting to resolve the borrowed neutral. Thanks for taking the time and effort to share your working methods and tips of the trade. Keep up the good work and ignore the holier than thou comments on here.
That bonding cable floating around in the floor doing nothing :D Brilliant. If I could find an electrician - or any trade - putting out content like this, demonstrating their knowledge, I'd have them out to do work in a heartbeat - brilliant self advertising, IMHO, and good content to boot.
Love watching these videos electrical from other countries. It is a big difference from how we do it in Canada.
I’m 43 now and want to become an electrician. I already know all the basics, probably up to a point to wire and install a consumer unit in a small flat (never done it though ((and don’t intend to do it without proper quals))). Thanks for the very informative video.
Just like welds: A good-looking weld is not a guarantee of a good weld; a bad looking weld is always a bad weld. Really neat work making best use of space.
I wouldn’t have shortened those earths and neutrals so much. But you get a lovely neat job your way.👍
I agree, if you are replacing a board then someone else might have to do it again sometime.
Leave some slack , you might be back . That's what I was told as an apprentice
Seems the modern way, I was trained to leave sweeping bends when fitting c/u’s. Old school👍
They will be long I do this method there just tucked up behind. Just looks very neat. Great job exactly the way I do things
Appreciate all your efforts in sharing your years of experience, taking the decades to edit b4 the 72years to upload. Keep em coming.
I'm not a sparks but as a tradesman, you don't know how much I enjoyed your video (even the silent movie sections 🤣). Brilliant tips and info throughout.
I'm an Electrician by trade in the US. We follow the National Electrical Code. And I find your videos fascinating, different county, different standards (similar in a way but also very different). New homes are built with 200Amp service and our circuit breakers are different. Its as if your circuit breakers/main panel/fuses are all solid-state. Thank you for the vidoes.
I used to work for a DNO and to pull a main fuse we had to wear flash proof overalls, rubber gloves and a helmet with full face visor. You pull a fuse out with bare hands, bare face and ordinary clothing !! You obviously have never seen one take off, with a 500A fuse in the substation hundreds of yards away that is not even going to think of blowing. If that one screw holding the base to the chipboard meterboard isn't holding, the base will come with it. Pray its not an old pilc cable and the bottom cores are being held tight by them grub-screws.
Currently working for a DNO and can confirm we've had so many people have serious flash burns from cutouts going up, even single phase 100A cutouts.
Stop dicking about with DNO equipment and get it done by someone who knows the risks.
Honest question, if you have turned off the load in the house at the consumer unit, why would there be a flash at the fuse, surely the flash is just an ark of electricity trying to continue the circuit when you pull the fuse, no circuit because it’s off and no load, no flash?
@@davidkelly4841 Fair question, it's possible for two reasons. First is the construction of the cutout, some of the older ones are made from cast iron then when the cable is terminated filled with pitch, over the years this can warm up and seep out, leaving no insulation inside the cutout, sometimes a small disturbance such as pulling the fuse can cause the phase to touch neutral or the iron casing of the cutout, this would cause a flash over.
Cables where insulation has begun to break down due to heat damage or age if disturbed can also cause a flash over by live and neautral earth touching, it's rare.. but honestly it's not worth the risk. Most DNOs will come out for free to do stuff like this, as it has been a house fire, also a lot of DNO's will fit isolators after the cutout for a small fee so you don't need to pull the fuse in future.
Edit: Just to put this into perspective, the fuses that would be protecting the circuit before the cutout are often 500A and above with a typical LV circuit, these are not fast blowing fuse either, so that they are able to deal with small bursts of overload here and there. So at 500A the fuse is essentially no protection at all for someone on the end of a 35mm CNE cable. If a DNO engineer thinks there may be an issue with the cutout, he can drop the 500A fuse at the sub whilst the cutout is isolated and inspected. Electricians don't have that luxury.
@@Fedorcore85 Thanks Tucker, I guess the risk is from a damaged or loose fuse holder and or cable, worth knowimg!
Been following the channel for a while now mate. By far your best video in my opinion. Well done. Keep them coming👍
Just pulled my floor boards up in the top floor bathroom and found a 10mm twin earth that runs up the external side of the building joined under the floor to a split con cable using service connectors on a peace of ply best part the live block had the side missing so fully exposed love it
Great vid .The rest of the world still has the rewireable 3036s or original replacement mcbs , yes the trip times don't comply but as long as you have those 2 rcds covering the incomers you are fairly safe .a for cables being doubled up in the 32 amp mcbs I usually take the 3rd and downgrade it to a 20 amp .most are elderly clients who aren't really happy to have an 18th ed fuse board upgrade or cant afford it .Great Vid .I also always recommend an upgrade to.
I once did the same as you and fitted a board on the skew to match a wonky cupboard. Came back some years later to find that everything had been rebuilt straight, leaving my consumer unit on the tilt and looking awful. After that I have fitted everything straight and level.
That was my worry too.
Its just nice to watch good work. Sometimes the internet is right :)
Very enjoyable. A couple of points: the 1mm sq wire wrapped round that conductor end was not there to increase the conductor diameter. Many years ago, it was standard practice to wrap fuse wire or other light guage wire round larger conductors, such as meter tails, and sometimes all conductors terminating in fuse ways, to prevent strands from splaying out when the terminal screws were tightened: it gives a better connection. Second: your c.u. wiring is super neat, but why don’t you leave any slack? It is good practice to re-make off the conductor ends when they have been disconnected for testing, and from the look of it, this won’t be possible in the future on this installation. Other than that, great workmanship.
Cant speak for the man himself but I leave the slack up behind the neutral and earth bars, I suspect he does something similar
Another top video Chris. I loved the hammer action when fitting the gland into the board 🤣.
Tappy tap taaap. . .
Love those Hager Boards! Great video as always.
Good video mate , nice to see a spark not looking for other peoples faults on previous work, all these no all's forget that regs where different years ago , current stuff today with be obsolete in 10 years time , changing all the time 👍👍
that '1mm' round the tails were a good practice back in the day to stop the strands spreading when tightened.
Not a good practice really. Just shake the wire til it spreads in the clamp. then re tighten
@@vegorde thats how we do it now, but back in the day on stranded cables such as 25mm, you would leave one strand long enough to wrap round the others. when time was no issue and people werent in a rush.
Just use a crimp ferrule. It's the right thing to do.
Love how the main fuse had no seal... that always happens to me as well!!
If you still got those chunky RCDs I'd love one of them! They were designed in Austria, close to where I live and everyone had them back in the 70s and 80s! Oddly enough that design was only ever used in Austria, Eastern Germany and the UK, no idea why!
Really cool to see a another tradesman enjoy his craft. Nice.
I could watch this all day long.
You’re a knowledgable guy and you certainly earn your money.
Regarding the clip at 6.56, i was taught in the early 90's by an old NIC electrician that wrapping 1 of the copper cores around the large tails ( 16mm / 25mm etc) makes for a far better connection. I have also wriggled the DNO's tails from either the meter or cutout & sometimes they can be pulled out !!
Which as we all know is a fire hazard.
Great video Chris, easily the best one you've done, very nice work also.
Just love doing a board change on some old houses that might have a few boards, some external RCD, maybe some other weird wiring. And putting in a new board with RCD and everything in a new board
Takes me back to the 80s an 90s when I had my own electrical business, NIC appeared.
Used to get some good jobs, house holders always paid on time, factories and commercial jobs always kept me waiting, some went tits up before paying
Very interesting. It's good to say when something is alright. It's always easier to criticise (and justifiably so sometimes!).
What a great video Chris! Nicely presented and explained. Yep the old borrowed neutrals problem! We've all had that issue. Love the thumbs up to all the keyboard warriors, it's all traffic like you say.
19:04 In the IT world we called that "scope creep" when little add ons creep in to the original scope of work.
Obsession of the Month we call them whileyer’s .
Older TT installations never had earth rods and relied on the metal water supply for the main earth and were often 6mm
I fitted an earth rod to a TT system years ago , fitted a 100 ma rcd , tested the rod got 200 ohms , connected the bonding cables , got 0.20 ohms.
@@dennisphoenix1 probably one of the houses nearby has been converted to tnc-s and that is carrying over the metallic pipework.
Worried if you put a new earth rod on the property there might be a chance that this earth route could then be the earth route taken by adjoining properties if the water/ gas mains are slowly being up graded .
Excellent example of why you should never have junction boxes hidden in the wall or the floor.
He'd of been there longer if they weren't on this occasion
Great video mate, real sparky, living in the real world 👌🏻
Speaking about when jobs grow and grow, Chris. I say that I’ve been Columboed by them.
“Just one more thing...”
Great work pal. Very thorough. At least these customers are getting a proper job done.
ooh, I like the 1mm whipping (serving) wrapped around that red tail, very old school, how to protect your strands when you only have 7 of them to begin with!
Nice job mate, nice to see sparks take pride in their work
Those twisted together CPCs on lighting circuits seemed to be normal practice a few decades ago. My last house, built in the 1970s had all the CPCs in the lighting circuits done that way. Also, "borrowed neutrals" were common. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there (opening sentence of The Go-between by L.P. Harley, which is way out of context, but highly applicable to installations of all sorts).
nb. it's about time that RCD split board designs were banned. The extra costs of RCBOs is a small proportion of the installation cost and you save 4 slots on the CU as well as it being a better solution all round.
Thanks for the interesting video's. Nice to see someone who takes pride in doing it right!
The famous, “while your here, can you.......”
Consider it a vote of confidence. Sure, it throws out your schedule, but they like what you've done so far, and want more of the same. In this case, it also helped ease the pain of finding that split neutral too.
Or can you just ......
In Northern Ireland Its the sparky’s job to pull the main fuse not the DNO. Only way to get in trouble is if you don’t reseal it.
sorry about the internet connection for your upload, but I really like the longer videos and better explanations.
Great video Chris.
You nearly make me want to jump back on the tools again.
Keep up the good work mate
Really rate your videos mate. I'm in the last year of my apprenticeship and think it's great to see how other guys do things 👌
Chris ,with you on integrated downlights ,so much better 👍🏻 try and build a rapport with your wholesalers they’ll deliver to you ,saves time and money
Everyones an expert I could pull a video to bits thats this long. Not a bad vid but do agree cables cut way to short leave em all neatly in the board your job was made easy by doing so.
Brilliant video Chris, love the explanations and the history behind the work.👍
Thank you for your videos I'm learning a lot from you as I'm currently in the very early days in my course of becoming a domestic electrical installer. Once again thank you and keep up the great work
Fantastic to watch this and to know how the work is done in other countries.
Hahah wow. Growing up in the 80's that was what we had! Olllld school.
Just bought a house and it has wire fuses and bakelite box. No ring mains just a billion spurs done with flex.
I'm still not dead... a year later. 😂👍
to work on a board with no meter based isolator i always pull the fuse... couldnt give a shite about the supply company... its safest
I did one fuse box renewal live cos the dno failed to turn up, never again, pull the fuse, I'd rather go to court than die, simple
good work chris, you do a good job, nice and safe for the client and good for the next electrician to work on, keep up the good work
Good vid dude, earth rod pit is a wee bit small though. A Black wiska box works nicely with the black conduit, make it easier for yourself =)
I liked the longer video.
I would have brought the cables in the rear, then sealed up the gap.
The unknown bonds I would connect as I feel it would be safer to connect them than not.
I would put the radial sockets on 20's, if the circuits are ever extended.
In my C&G training in the 80's, we used to do an exercise to prove that on short runs you could use 1 milli for immersions. Now, of course, you have to use minimum 1.5 for "power" circuits.
Thanks Chris for all your videos 👍 Really do enjoy all your videos, keep up the great work
Good stuff and very informative! Familiar too as I recently changed one of the old Wylex units with a wooden back on it for a nice new split load box. All safe and secure now.
Awesome, thanks. One of the best all-round videos I’ve seen of an Electricians day.
Awesome vid mate very detailed and great productivity keep up the great work 🤙🤙🇦🇺
I love how tidy your work is, I wish you'd done the wiring on my house!
Great Video.I agree with others more detailed Videos as always a pleasure to watch.keep up to good work Chris👌
Excellent video Chris. Love the longer vids. If you can keep it up, the more of these the merrier.
Brilliant video, a lot of work packed into a half hour. I've tried that myself and I know it's not easy to do and still make sense. Yours is text book. I didn't like the look of the job, except it was easy to get the boards up, looked like one of those jobs that is in danger of getting bigger faster than you can make it smaller which is stressful with other work scheduled. Ball ache those shared neutrals, easy to miss.
What a big job , your a very good electrician very good video keep up the good work .👌
Number 1 best video 👍🏻👍🏻
At 18:55 where you talk about shared neutral and two way switch i wish you did a quick wiring diagram sketch to explain exactly what is happening. It would be great for apprentices etc Thanks for great video
Great video bro - much prefer the longer ones. Nice little lunchtime viewing ;)
I have lived in a house where the previous owner was an electrician, but also an alcoholic, obese, and otherwise somewhat disabled. So he oversaw the village winos doing his renovation and electrical work. There were some quite dangerous contraptments...
The kitchen sink light and the dishwasher would momentarily go off if you kicked the vestibule wall, and it turned out that it was wired through that wall from a non-grounded outlet which only had two wires coming to it... There was a transition to thicker wire and a fake ground was made there so that the ground wire was tied under its own screw on the neutral rail, but the incoming neutral itself was a thinner gauge than the outgoing one, and they resided under the same screw. So everytime the wall would shake, the incoming neutral would give way and all devices at the end of that circuit would momentarily turn off - and have almost full live voltage at the chassis...
There were knife-sawed oval holes in the upper storey ceilings hidden by light fixtures, where you had to insert your hand elbow deep through the insulation to reach the junction box and pull a wad of wires out to access them...
The kitchen stove was also wired in a weird manner. From the consumer unit, a 5 wire cable came down to the basement for it (3 phase, neutral, ground). From there a 4 wire cable ran across the ceiling to under the kitchen, (3 phase + neutral), then a fake ground was made and a 5 wire cable ran up and behind the stove.
On the lamp & cans. you can get led lamps from 60 to 105 degrees output angle also now.
My country is in east Europe, but we haw a bit beter code for electrical instalations.
I know this is a rustic one, but sheesh. Its not as bad as it can be but those small distribution boxes under the wooden floor are nasty, no cable strain, it woud be nice if they put cables in lead pipe as it was the norm back then.
We do put cable direct in masonry now, but rearly use cable ties or wago connectors, its prefered to strip 10cm of full wires and twist them thogether in small distribution boxes, insulation tape in great amounts, it takes a lot of time but rearly any problem whit contacts.
Main fuse box is similar if not the same as in UK
A beautiful job, well presented and a very entertaining video too!
When you see this you are happy that most stuff here has been done with vinyl tubing ;)
Great video Chris as always...keep them coming in 👍🏻
Chris...always use an extendable 5/8 rod.....knock it in...do a test if its over range ..add to it and try again. With the rod you use what would you do if its over range?..just a thought mate..keep up the good work.
Yes I’d of had to add another one a meter away from that one. Thanks for the tip 👍
I feel like iv'e just done another days work lol... some shoddy work there eweeee! top vid Chris.
Thought I saw your van today in Stoke, I was thinking bloody what's Chris doing down here before I realised the guy had pinched your text font style and the C J R spacing and just put a little coloured line to make the C a G haha - maybe he follows your videos :D
Great video as always. Keep up the good work
I've seen the same van more than once on my way home from work. Often wondered if it was the real CJR or not
Pro tip: If your broadband connection is slow, ideally use the master socket with all extensions disconnected (not just unused, but physically disconnected). If you still need extensions, disconnect the bell wire, No. 3, as this picks up interference and slows down your connection. Old phones will ‘ding’ but modern ones don’t any more.
Modern NTEs have a bell wire filter.
A most excellent job sir.well done superb.keep up the great bids sir.well done.
Really interesting video. Like to see how others do their work in comparison to what I have Been taught during my apprenticeship
Great Video lad, good to have you back, been relying on some new guys to CZcams for my electrical kicks . You and MyTrustedElectrician have always been my main go to 😂 keep em coming 👍🏻 #HagerGang
Excellent video.
Stopped using the intergrated lights as no one pays me to replace them when they go wrong within a year, decent led lamps and cans as standard now, if a lamp goes the client can replace it.
At least one other YT electrician has made the same point.
The comment in 35deg spill on the Mirabellas was strange. Surely you can buy wider - eg. Phillips comes in both a 35 and 60 deg version.
On the integrated - in Australia it's common to fit a cheap plug socket inside the ceiling. Easy to remove and replace... That said the quality ones should last 20+ years.
@@mark123655 you can get 110 degree
If no one pays you to replace lights another spark has put it? You wouldn’t do the job, unless you’re a charity. That really would make you a super spark
mike893398 You misunderstand what he meant. When you install these self contained Led fittings, and they fail within a year, you can’t realistically charge (or not the going rate) to go back and replace failed units. Fit something with a lamp, then the customer can change their own.
another great vid i think i will change my consumer unit now after this vid NO only joking great detail and vid Chris keep it coming
WHAT??? How had I missed the MK news? What a pain, I like their boards!
News here too. Announced in August so it'll appear in the next edition of trade mags.
20:06 those are great because they can be modified to make adapters for all sorts of things. just remove the circuit board and connect whatever you want.
Great work. We want more videos. Cheers
I seen that borrowed neutral issue within about 30 sec of realising what the job entailed... quite a common issue really