Steptoe

That makes it a lot clearer. But it seems it was never designed correctly in the first place. And I've yet to see any form of terminal that has been designed to NOT accept flex, ferrules are made for a reason. It would be interesting to know what sort of HR (heat resistant) cable was specified,,,,,,

Or It seems these guys want to run electric space heaters,! You could always take a gamble, get that cheap one at £1k, if it breaks down after whatever then tough, you've got to hire one in, if it lasts the time, flog it and get at least your fuel money back, you'd have to pay for that either way anyway.

But,!!!! Don't call them pricks, I can, it's not my house they are building, If it comes to it, with loads like that, then hire is probably the way to go with loading like that, if it breaks down, get hire company to exchange it.

Tbh, I think your builders are being pricks demanding 10kva Genny on a private build, they should have propane heaters or similar, yes, they put a little bit of moisture in the air, but the heat they generate soon moves that, The loads it seems these guys want are iro 2kw each x4 , you'll have any Genny you get on its knees think.

OK, so the price is per week hire, with maximum 60hours use, pretty standard for plant, you are hours limited, They also have an unlimited hours hire charge too, How much power at any one point does your builder require,? EDIT @PeterW was quicker than me

I'd say so, there is getting a bargain, and there is looking at something that is too good to be true.

Think of all those extra things to break in a petrol, If you really must, as I said, but 3 (or 4) cheap 3kva Gennys, keep one at the end, and if you've looked after them half decent and not bashed them about, you'll get most of your money back for the others, and, if one breaks down, you've still got others to use.

If you get your 3 weeks out of that you should throw a party,! Never mind getting getting 3hours to the gallon,!!!

Run away,!!!! It's cheap for a reason, It's petrol,!!

Kw isn't the same as kva,,,,, It may be ok, once you hit about 6kva for some reason prices seem to jump massively, It could just be a Genny on its 5th or 6th owner, and each has took their little bit of lose on it. I Wouldn't be buying it blind though,

It's fine , @Onoff knows how I say things by now, I only learnt 'proper' English at school when I turned 11 and sometimes find it hard to convey in writing what I'm actually thinking.

OK, Hire vs Buy It's the 13 week rule, On week 14 you could have bought whatever it was you hired for the same money, Try it,?

For 3 weeks hire, I'm surprised you guys don't know the rule of hire Vs buy,?

You can buy a cheapish (but still decent enough) 3kva Genny for £300ish, If you must buy a couple or 3 of those, a whole lot easier to sell on afterwards too.

Machine Mart, Tell the builders to get some propane blow heaters,!!!!!

Actually, Scrub that last statement, MM have a Lister for just under £5k, !!!!! So you will get one a fair bit cheaper than that, that's worth a buy,

What are you running that you need something that big,? Expect to pay at least £5k for anything even half decent,

Generally 20a But you can get larger, but it's going to take up more ways, and not really practical, I'd have to check if a contactor could be used for isolation, but I doubt it.

What I actually said, The socket should have been wired as a radial in the first place, then the oven could have been plugged into a correctly designed circuit. I didn't advocate cutting the plug off anything, as @Onoff said Then when the 16a oven arrived the socket could simply have been changed to a 20a DP switch. No need to cut any plugs off, and I doubt any domestic appliance is going to come with a 16a plug on it. And yes, you are correct, MIs must always be followed, BS7671 actually has a statement to that effect.

It may be of interest to some to note that, even though an oven may be fitted with a 13a plug, if it is rated at 2kw or more then it requires a dedicated circuit anyway, so if it had been wired correctly in the first place then the 13a socket could have been changed for a 20a DP switch and the breaker should have been a 16a anyway, so the problem would never have arisen if properly designed in the first place.

Brennenstuhl (spelling?) are pretty good make, That pro-elec stuff is pretty much cheap and cheerful tbh @Alphonsox , but its OK stuff for the price, I've fitted a few of their os led floods and no major issues, just not as good quality as some other makes.

Make your own up.

If it only houses control gear then its no longer a CU, As @Nickfromwales points out, its now merely a din rail enclosure, You wouldn't necessarily need direct isolation , but would need to label it up as having 2 sources of energy, ie, the control signal, and the power supply, so requires isolation at 2 points, or at the main switch. Whichever is applicable, If you want to use one switch to only isolate the enclosure it would require enough poles to isolate the control cables and the supply cables.

So, That'd simply be 4 DIN rail enclosures then,?

As an aside, If you have a CU being used as a CU, ie, main switch and MCB or RCBO feeding circuits, then you can't just fit a generic time clock or contactor in it, you are not allowed to mix and match. in real life, is it a problem,? Not that I can see of, Legally,? It's a massive NO. It's to do with a manufacturer only certifies their cu for use with their products, so in reality, unless it's been certified for use with anyone elses product then you are not permitted to fit it, it could be an insurance get out clause. And will be picked up on any future EICR by a competent person, In other words, if you fit a Hager CU you have to fit a Hager time clock/contactor, same with most other manufacturers.