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UK Consumer Unit Split Board Advice Wanted

Posted by Trystan Scales, on
I recently noticed that the RCD on my consumer unit at home was not stopping supply to the whole house when tripped during a test. This concerned me and I got an electrician round who was very helpful and advised me, but I would be grateful for a second opinion from this community. The electrician explained that what I have is a split board where the RCD will only turn off certain things if tripped and will leave other things on like lights. He said this was fine a few years ago but is now not up to building regulations and that if for instance a faulty wired light caused the house to burn down that insurers are unlikely to pay out. He checked that I DID have an earth wire on my stop cock and gas main and said all he would have to do to get it up to scratch and certified is to fit a new board all RCD'd and with a metal casing. He did say he might have to earth the pipes on our heating and that would be slightly more if he did have to do so. Being no expert any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading.
Tom Quirk

Tom Quirk

Some old style consumer units 16th edition and previous had partial RCD protection, however with 17th edition and now 18th edition which commenced in July 2018, the laws are different for protection within the home. 17th edition required an advisory from the electrician if the consumer unit was not compliant, however if there was a shower cct present it must be red protected, there would be no impact on home insurance, unless the testing showed that there was a real danger of fire or death. 18th edition from January 2019 will require all consumer units to be RCBO, ensuring single cct protection, from what we have so far been told this will be a retroactive requirement

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