landlords being landlords
lol my landlord is scrambling to get an electrical inspection done for our house cos it's going to be required by law by April, just had someone round to do a quote for that and the fuse board needs to be replaced apparently 😂 he said that the inspections have been possible for a long time but it's only just being made law so you can imagine that many landlords weren't bothering
landlords being landlords
@wolfie agh! that's something i'll need to look out for; my electricals haven't been checked since i moved in, almost 5 years ago... and i expect the results are not going to amuse my landlord :-( still, at least this fuse board is relatively new, and has an RCD device in it (i know because i've tripped it once or twice) so hopefully it's good for a bit longer
landlords being landlords
commercial/industrial premises have always had a 5 year inspection requirement, ISTR it was recommended for shared residential houses some time in 1990s (then forgotten about as it was never enforced until now)
There's 3 categories of defects and only the first means urgent replacement required, but it does make sense to replace a dis board in a house as demand increases over the years (soon EV chargers will be more and more popular)
landlords being landlords
@thamesynne @wolfie beware though that unless you have an isolator switch downstream of the service head and before the income on your dis board, changing a dis board is not trivial as the electrician, meter operator and sometimes the DNO (UK Power Networks, Powergrid, SSE etc) have to work together to co-ordinate safe removal and replacement of the service head fuse whilst the dis board is swapped over whilst keeping the time off supply as short as possible >>
landlords being landlords
only a few private electricians have the legal authority to remove and replace seals on service head fuses and you do *not* want the meter operators thinking you have done it yourselves!
some electricians do get training from the DNO on how to safely deal with service heads (various unpleasant things can happen if mistakes are made) after completion of which they are issued with a limited quantity of temporary seals with known code numbers)
landlords being landlords
I ordered a smart meter from Bulb and had their engineer coming 4 (four) times before he gave up and said I have old meter with tin-covered tails on which he cannot legally install it.
So then I had a certified engineer (ordered online from Able Group) replace the fuse board to a modern one with RCD, and just today had Bulb coming again and now enjoying the smart meter eventually.
landlords being landlords
@kravietz
seems like the tails to the consumer unit were undersized, as if its the meter operator/DNO side and/or the service head being an obsolete/unsafe kind (there are still some ancient old ones about, full of asbestos and all sorts of other nasties) then SSEN would have been responsible for upgrading it (and presumably the meter operator and DNO argue about who pays for it or there might be some subsidy from Ofgem to cover that..)
@thamesynne @wolfie