Consumer unit placement and clearances

[Del-inquent]

It looks like we might be having a rewire on our new place.

I've had a chat with a couple of electricians as the current placement of the consumer unit it is less than ideal - it's in the kitchen, in a rather awkward place and severely hampers the layout of the (not particularly big) kitchen.

Electrician 'A' has told me that it would be fine to have it within a kitchen cupboard and that there are no requirements for clearances either side of the CU.

Electrician 'B' has told me that's not permitted. 

I've been searching but can't find any guidance on it. 

Keeping it within a reasonable distance of the supply / meter, it would be very simple to put it within a 400mm full height cabinet (which also fits in to our favoured kitchen design), so I'd like to believe Electrician 'A' but... well I don't want to have a nasty surprise!
 

[billt]

I'm pretty sure that the only rule about positioning of CUs is that they need to be at an accessible height (switches at 1350-1450mm above the floor) in new builds, it's not retrospective though.

 

Why does electrician B think that it's not permitted?

[Del-inquent]

44 minutes ago, billt said:

I'm pretty sure that the only rule about positioning of CUs is that they need to be at an accessible height (switches at 1350-1450mm above the floor) in new builds, it's not retrospective though.

 

Why does electrician B think that it's not permitted?

Explanations were “thin” shall we say. He was pretty adamant that it had to have clearance around it and couldn’t be within a kitchen cupboard. 
 

ideally I’d move the supply, meter and CU elsewhere but the budget has been swallowed by a nasty surprise 

[TonyT]

Where does the power come into the building?

 

it’s a rewire put  it where you want, but makes sense to make it accessible.

 

silly places like just below the ceiling in the downstairs loo, to inside a kitchen cupboard full of crap to the under stair cupboard likely to be full, or the garage wherhe you have to get past all the accumulated crap.

 

you decide what works for you and you tell the electrician.

If it’s further than 3 metres from the electricity cut out it will need another fuse to protect your sub main cable.

but none of this is complicated.

 

 

Edited September 22, 2023 by TonyT

[ProDave]

In a rewire you can route all circuits to anywhere you want.  It is the one time you can sensibly get to choose anywhere in the house to put the CU.  So make that sensible choice.

 

You probably will need a switch fuse and appropriate cable from the meter box to feed the new CU so the routing for that cable might influence where the new CU will go perhaps.

 

Kitchen cupboard is a silly place.  Awkward to work on and unless you never use that cupboard for anything, loads of stuff to move just to get at it.

[Mattg4321]

If that’s a 400mm wide 600mm deep cupboard that would be a no from me. Poor access to work on it. 
 

500-600mm wide, 300mm deep wall

cabinet and I’d probably be ok with it, if fitted to the wall, not the cabinet, and at the bottom of the wall cabinet so access is better. Also not right in the corner of a room so you need to get on top of the work surface to get at it. 
 

As above though, it makes sense to relocate it somewhere more sensible at this stage. 

[Del-inquent]

11 hours ago, ProDave said:

In a rewire you can route all circuits to anywhere you want.  It is the one time you can sensibly get to choose anywhere in the house to put the CU.  So make that sensible choice.

 

You probably will need a switch fuse and appropriate cable from the meter box to feed the new CU so the routing for that cable might influence where the new CU will go perhaps.

 

Kitchen cupboard is a silly place.  Awkward to work on and unless you never use that cupboard for anything, loads of stuff to move just to get at it.

I definitely agree it's not ideal putting it in a cupboard, the problem is the next most suitable place is a long way from it and difficult to route to.

One thing that both electricians have said is that they will have to mount a new CU at current regs height - is that not the case? If it can go literally anywhere, it could move just 15cm... to the other side of the wall, in my office, but only if it can go up at the same height it currently is (2m)

 

[TonyT]

How is it difficult, the whole house is being rewired so every room, is affected?

[Del-inquent]

On 22/09/2023 at 21:32, TonyT said:

How is it difficult, the whole house is being rewired so every room, is affected?

Just in terms of what alterations would be needed, it's construction has been modified a couple of times and made it awkward to do without significant disturbance, and we're living in it.