New Regulations could mean price hike!
The general public that may be not aware that new electrical industry regulations known as the ’18th edition wiring regulations’ have recently come into force.These regulations to any NICEIC contractor or similar body it is our bible.
What do these regulations mean to the householder
One of the biggest push’s by the big wigs who produce the regs is the recommendation of RCBO usage, which unless you can guarantee a reduced level of Earth leakage, the use of RCBO’s would be a better option than a split /shared RCD.
With this in mind you may find your local electrician giving you a quote considerably higher than you expected, particular for a fuse board upgrade as the cost of RCBO’s over a shared RCD is considerably more expensive. Unfortunately, as usually is the case, most safety improvements do cost more.
What are RCBO’s
The official definition of a RCBO is ‘Residual Current Circuit Breaker with Over Current protection’ what this means is that instead of a shared big brother style ?’ RCD’ (residual current device), an RCBO is a combination of a breaker (switch) and an RCD in one unit. This makes fault finding much easier and less hassle to the home owner because they will be aware immediately which tripped circuit is causing a problem.
Visually you will see a little test button on the RCBO similar to that of a shared RCD, but slightly smaller, the big advantage of an RCBO is separated protection, that doesn’t affect the rest of your electrical installation, so for example if your sockets trip due to a faulty washing machine, you actually don’t know which is the actual problem circuit on a shared RCD system, unless you have fault finding skills, but with a RCBO protected circuit it will be the only one to trip, less frustrating for the home owner and could save you alot of time and money.
How much more will i spend
This will always be down to the electrician you get to do the work, but as a leading electrician in Worcester and surrounding areas, In my case, you could be looking at an increase in cost of £100 for a budget to middle range fuse board and possibly double that for a high end one.
Electricians are not trying to rip the public off, this is what we have to install to make you safer in your homes, unfortunately safety comes at a price, it’s a no brainier in my opinion, because you will find it equal itself out over time, as it will be less hassle and save you money when you come to having a fault on your upgraded system.
I hope you found this information useful and informative if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.
Darren Spencer
01905915001
Darren@darrenspencerelectrical.co.uk