Be Excellent To Each Other

I've got an old school fuse box, one of those ones that uses fuse wire. Under the new building regulations, when it comes to my selling this place, am I going to have to replace it? If so, can I do it myself, or am I going to have to get a man in?

There's four fuses, so the wires around the house must end up in there at some point, so it can't be that hard to remove the old box, stick a new one in the wall and connect them all up again. I assume that the electricity passes through the meter before reaching the fuse box, so there must be a big ON/OFF switch there to turn it all off before doing this. So, can I do it all myself, and then just get the man to connect the new fuse box to the electricity, or do I have to get him to do the whole lot? It can't be too tricky, as there are only 5 wires in total needed connecting, and the new box is probably just held on by four screws anyway, so i'd rather not pay someone to do something i can do.

Thanks.

EDIT: Is there a decent book to buy for this sort of thing? My brother in law is a sparky, and he had a massive book to read last year on some stuff, but I think that was more to do with more complicated stuff, rather than just joining wires together.

This thread is like watching paint dry.

You can't legally do it yourself anyway, but also:Not usually, no. Generally to replace the consumer unit you have to ask the electricity board to turn your supply off from their end.

I don't know much about this kind of stuff but I would imagine you can't do it yourself as you need a fully qualified electrician to do it and provide receipts/certificates.

If your house has an old fuse box though, chances are the wiring around the house is old to and would probably be recommended to be replaced in the surveys etc.

You could always leave it and point it out when the house is being sold.. then it's their problem (but they may want to get a discount because of this)

You shouldn't have to replace it, and as Doc says you can't do it yourself unless you're a Part P-certified electrician.

I asked an electrician this and he said no! He simply takes the main fuse out of their fuse box (the one with the dials on it) and the does all his wiring.

Hmm, I'm allowed to replace cabling, so can do the rewiring (if needed) myself, and then just get the bloke to sign it off for me. I'll probably end up doing that anyway.

When I had my kitchen done, the sparky had to replace the whole fuse board and install an RCD to the kitchen. He basically just switched it off. No need to call the leccy board.

Quoted for your obituary.

You don't need to get it done, but it will flag on the survey by the purchaser if they have a proper one done (Eg - not just for the mortgage). But anything outside current building regs will be flagged, which means it will be one of many matters.

It was certainly the biggest thing on our survey - we were quoted about £200 by the surveyor to get it replaced with a new PCB, but that was before the recessions, so I'm fairly sure I could get it done cheaper if I could be arsed, which I can't, but should. In my old flat the board was so good I could literally get in the bath with the toaster and know I'd be safe, and I've not quite got out of that mentality even though I only have a bent paper clip.

Hmm, part P is only a 4.5 day course and is £875. Can't be too hard.

Fucking over regulation.

How hard can it be? It's only attaching bits of wire to other bits of wire and plugs.

and then the sparks and the flames and the burning and the hey hey hey...

Next week, MaliA on why isn't he allowed to fly an Airbus 380. "How hard can it be? I've played G-Loc."

Yes over regulation, to stop numpties not knowing what they are doing killing themselves!!

The thing about copper wire carrying current is that it looks exactly like copper wire that is disconnected, until it kills you.

Go for it Mali.

Can you set up a battery powered webcam at all?

It's not too hard. However, to complete the job you've got to do various tests on it to make sure there are no unseen problems, such as checking the supply impedance, the protective earth resistance and the insulation resistance. As well as obtain a trip-time for the new breakers.

This requires kit which will cost more than £875. I know because I had to buy it.

And a speakerphone, so we can offer advice? Like, "no, Mali! Cut the red wire, not the blue!"

Hmm. Maybe I'll just leave it then.

Correct. The electricity board might get shirty if they notice you've cut the little tamper-proof wire off their main fuse though (but fuck 'em, I always do that anyway).

I know a sparky that does a fully consumer unit swap out for £400 ish..

Thing is, I'm not entirely sure if I need a new fuse box, or not, anyway, so I'll leave it for the time being anyway.

I think you only need to have up to scratch electrics if you're going to rent the place out.

It is a bit far for him to do a quote:) Take a pic and sent it to me, I will ask him...

I sold my house with fusebox and dodgy old rocker light switches (which it was possible to balance in between open and shut) in March 2006, Part P was in place and I don't think there's been anything significant since, if it helps.

Excellent. I saw a sparky last night, and despite having to listen to his recounting of how last night he boffed the barmaid, he said not to worry about it. If it was the fit barmaid, he's done well.

I used to be a spark. I can tell you this: don't do it. Get a spark to do it. It's easy enough - but it's an old board with old wiring. Belive me, when you take the board off and then replace it with a new one you are in for a world of hurt, especially if any of the cable come up short into the new board. Then, you have to be sure you have done it properly and you can only tell this when you switch things back on... It's not like changing a tap where the worst that can happen is that you will cause a flood. Electricity, especially when it is coming into the board from the main supply (the meter tails) is big time and if you get it wrong it...Put it this way...would you fuck around with gas?

Oh, and to answer your first question - there should be a massive fuse near to your meter - this is where the supply comes into the house. It should have wires preventing you from pulling it out (leccy companies usually do it to stop you bypassing the meter) just cut 'em, pull out the fuse and that should kill the supply to the fuse board.

Chinny top tip: If you are going to touch it, use the back of your hand. You see electrwickery causes your muscles to contract, meaning that if you use your finger tips you'll grip onto the wire and will then horribly die.

But don't touch it anyway.

Hmm, experience doesn't agree.

Really? It's fairly common received wisdom that electric shocks -> contracting muscles, and in the case of your hands that would tend to suggest that the fingers would curl inwards to the palm.

Fingers have no muscles. Just tendons.

Contracting muscles pull on the tendons that run to the fingers, though.

Also, fingers don't normally bend backwards.

Well yes - exactly.

Just doesn't seem to work like that, on me anyway. Maybe it's true for DC, I've been fortunate enough not to get zapped too badly by that yet.

You'd struggle to find much in the way of a DC source to rival even vanilla mains though, surely? A car battery, maybe.

True, my cars are under 200V.

Inside every switch mode power supply is a 340V DC rail though, referenced to ground, and with hefty capacitors attached..

I reckon you'd feel that.

I knocked a spanner across some car battery terminals once. Made a bit of a mess. I had the presence of mind to grab a 2x4 and smack it off before it welded itself totally though.

I saw the "urinate on the live rail" on mythbusters the other day. it is a myth. I was upset. back to pushing people instead, then.

However, dangling a long piece of metal off a railway bridge onto the Live rail isn't, as the lad with a missing lower leg around here can attest to, the idiot.

Energy hazard. Can be fun: http://www.evdl.org/pages/plasmaboy.html

What do you mean, it doesn't shock you? How does that work?

IIRC you've got to grab it. They tried it with it pissing wearing shoes, pissing with we shoes, pissing with no shoes and wet feet. I aws in the shower, so missed the finale. I'm inclined to beleive them.

That's brilliant. There's a (probably apocryphal) story I've seen in a few places on the web about a steel crowbar accidentally dropped across the conductor lines feeding an aluminium smelting plant. Wikipedia suggests that's only about 5v, but 220-360 kiloAmps. The story insists the crowbar was vaporised, essentially immediately.

"Although it is possible to electrocute yourself by urinating on a third rail, you would have to stand unrealistically close to the rail to do it. In most instances, a urine stream would break into droplets before making contact with the rail."

Hmm. I'm going to call "don't try it" on that one.

They demonstrate )or, at least, used to) the underground's live rail by lobbing a spanner onto it, then hanging it up on the office with a note attached.

I might have SKY boxed it, I'll check. it made me laugh though. I quite like mythbusters.

That's 5V per cell - could be several hundred volts for an entire plant. So I'd believe it.

I've visited the Alcan plant at Fort William, and standing anywhere near the conductors (which are solid aluminium, about a meter square section), you can feel the magnetic field pulling on the coins in your pocket.

Ah! I've read that -- apparently it feels very weird to walk in steel toe cap boots.