This article is inspired from Hager's own, Social Housing Consumer Unit brochure, which deals with the boards that are ideal for the social housing.
The Consumer Unit for Social Housing inside and out
- Mounting: Consumer Units should be easily reachable and be mounted with the switches at a height of between 0.45 & 1.2m above floor level.
- Ordinary Persons: Certain regulations only apply to installations not under the supervision of a skilled or instructed person ie. ordinary person.
- Sockets: Socket outlets for general use in domestic installations require RCD protection not exceeding 30mA.
- Buried Cables: Where buried cables are not mechanically protected, additional protection by an RCD not exceeding 30mA must be provided.
- Baths or Showers: All circuits in locations containing a bath or shower shall be protected by an RCD not exceeding 30mA.
- Single-use RCD: All circuits of an installation should not be connected to a single RCD.
- Smoke Detectors: Where RCD protection is needed for smoke detector circuits one option is to supply that circuit only.
Meeting the 17th Edition Wiring Regulations
There are many ways to meet the new 17th Edition Wiring Regulations, and the most practical of these is to provide RCD protection across all the circuits in the home.The best solution is a consumer unit where each outgoing circuit has individual RCD protection at 30mA.
If you use an RCBO for each outgoing circuit, the earth leakage on any one circuit would not affect others.
A standard main switch disconnector-controlled Hager consumer unit could be used with every circuit having individual RCD protection at 30mA.
This could be achieved by selecting RCBOs for every outgoing circuit instead of the usual MCBs.
A fault on any circuit would not affect other circuits and hence all relevant Regulations would be met by such a design.
Find out more about the Hager Consumer Units for social housing and the current regulations via,
- Hager Consumer units – inside and out – installation and flush fit;
- Consumer Unit guide to the 17th edition Wiring Regulations – 1;
- Consumer Unit Guide to the 17th Edition – 2 – Consumer Unit arrangements;
- Video – short Domestic Consumer Unit guide to the 17th regulations;
