Consumer units

[vfrdave]

Was chatting to a spark about some additions to a garage consumer unit which has raised some questions. He gave me a confused picture and has now gone quiet.

 

Garage consumer unit with 100A main switch and a 6A MCB light circuit and 32A MCB sockets. Upstream is only a 30A fuse.

 

Course of action would be to swap main switch with a 40A (or greater) RCD. Potential for an additional socket ring to go in.

 

Can RCD's and MCB's be mixed and matched in terms of manufacturer?  Current board is all mk and can't source any locally.

[Dutch]

Your post is not very clear, yes the same brand will normally install onto the board.

mcb are miniature circuit breakers 6amp 20amp 32amp etc

rcd residual current device

 

rcd in a board will normally have 4 or 5 mcb you normally have two RCD in a populated board.

 

rcbo - Residual Current Breaker with Over-Current this allows each circuit to have RCD protection without turning the other circuits off.

so if your lights have a fault and trip they won’t turn off your freezer etc.

 

I hope that helps.

 

please let the sparks do the install & mods.

[vfrdave]

1 minute ago, Dutch said:

Your post is not very clear, yes the same brand will normally install onto the board.

mcb are miniature circuit breakers 6amp 20amp 32amp etc

rcd residual current device

 

rcd in a board will normally have 4 or 5 mcb you normally have two RCD in a populated board.

 

rcbo - Residual Current Breaker with Over-Current this allows each circuit to have RCD protection without turning the other circuits off.

so if your lights have a fault and trip they won’t turn off your freezer etc.

 

I hope that helps.

 

please let the sparks do the install & mods.

Apologies I wasn't clear.

 

Essentially the main switch needs swapping out with an RCD, currently there isnt one on the board or upstream protecting this board.

 

Can an RCD be added from a different manufacturer than that of the existing MCB's?

[ProDave]

Generally no, you should not mix and match.  Unfortunately although certain aspects of an MCB are defined by various standards, these do not extend to the height and size of the terminals.  So a wrong make of mch or switch the terminals may not line up with the height of the busbar.

 

It is in theory possible to mix some makes together but no electrician would admit to doing that other than for research

 

If it's an MK board, there should be no problem finding an MK RCD for it or alternatively individual MK rcbo's

[Onoff]

Try here for obsolete / reconditioned circuit breakers etc:

 

https://www.reconelectrical.co.uk/distribution-and-circuit-protection/reconditioned-circuit-breakers

[ProDave]

And also https://www.thefusecompany.com/

[TonyT]

Personally I would leave the main switch and swap the mcbs fo rcbos. Rcd main switch will plunge you into darkness( assuming no EM lighting installed) when anything trips..

minimising grief is the name of the game!

[Onoff]

31 minutes ago, TonyT said:

Rcd main switch will plunge you into darkness( assuming no EM lighting installed) when anything trips..

 

Ask me how I know... ?

[ProDave]

5 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

Ask me how I know... ?

Yes, my new build is an all rcbo install (Hager)

[vfrdave]

I totally get that but it is a studio in a garage so sucks to be the FIL ?

[ProDave]

So buy two MK rcbo's, not that difficult.