Moving electric board/fuse box

[ThatsNotMySheep]

Does anyone have experience of this? We have a board with our fuse box, BT router and electric meter on it which needs to be moved due to some building work. It wasn't part of our original plans so just wanted to get an idea of how difficult and expensive it will be. It's only moving 60cm along the same wall if that makes a difference.

If the main fuse and meter need moving thats going to be a expensive as the distributor or their agents have to carry that work out. As for the consumer unit, it will depend on the state of the existing board will it need to be replaced, do cables need to be extended etc etc I wouldn't expect much change out of £1k just for the consumer unit being moved.

Thanks, that's useful to know. Eon has mentioned a charge of £160 but that seems really low so I'm not sure how much that's covering. They've to come out with the cng (?) electricity network to look at it.

It's definitely a fuse box, the meter that we use to give meter readings and a wireless router that are all on the same but of wall and need to move 60cm. Hassle and delays we didn't need.

The electricity company have to disconnect the "tails" ie their supply going into the meter and extend them. This is the expensive bit.

Then the consumer unit will need sorting too due to having to extend or shorten the wires from the meter going to the consumer unit (fuse board) and also house supply going in.

You have the electric supply going into the meter
electric cables going from the meter to the consumer unit
electric cables going from the consumer unit to lights, sockets, oven etc

So yes, unfortunately these things don't come cheap. Only the electric company can disconnect the meter. They "crimp" the tail wires (tiny little metal tubes which will have a number on that relates to a specific engineer who has a crimping tool that stamps the metal) this shows if anyone has cut them and tampered with the meter. I used to work for an electricity company, part of our training was going out and seeing a meter change.

I think, think, it is about £1k for anything within 1m distance but don't quote me on that.

Thank you so much for all of that information @Devlocopop. That's really useful and closer to the figure I had plucked out of thin air! It looks like they can't send anyone out until w/c 27th July so we won't be any further forward until then but it's good to have an idea of what to expect now.

4 years ago it cost us £400 to have Western Power supply a new fuse box and connect it to the the relocated mains supply - which only they were allowed to do. We had to dig a small trench outside to allow the main cable to be relocated.
Add in the cost of a sparky at approx £50 an hour to reconnect the consumer unit to main fuse. The router shouldn't involve any cost.
If you need one, a new domestic consumer unit is approx £100.

Excellent price there @species5618.

I think the £1k was something we quoted to give people an idea of the potential cost, maybe a sneaky bit of marketing meant they went oooh bargain if it was less than the £1k

@species5618

4 years ago it cost us £400 to have Western Power supply a new fuse box and connect it to the the relocated mains supply - which only they were allowed to do. We had to dig a small trench outside to allow the main cable to be relocated. Add in the cost of a sparky at approx £50 an hour to reconnect the consumer unit to main fuse. The router shouldn't involve any cost. If you need one, a new domestic consumer unit is approx £100.

£100 quid if you want a garbage consumer unit that isnt giving you the protection you think.

I had the fuse box, consumer unit, etc moved about the same distance (60 cm) last August when we bought a completely new kitchen including some building work from John Lewis. The electrical work were done by a third party electrical company sub-contracted by JL and I was asked to pay them just under £500 on top of the near £20K JL kitchen. This is north London.

R1R2 Price quoted was for MK or Wylex. As far as I'm aware both reasonable names.

Thanks everyone, you are all making me feel far more positive about what needs to be done. I had visions of it being ££££. We're in Scotland so won't have London prices to contend with but perhaps it's a standard charge from the supplier.

We've been sent a form to complete and return with photos of the current and new location. I'm keeping everything crossed that they can get the ball rolling on it fairly quickly. The BT router will only cost about £70 to move so that's good news.

Think @R1R2 is suggesting putting in a new consumer unit and an RCBO on each existing circuit.

It’s the RCBO devices that cost - £40 each ish.

@species5618

R1R2 Price quoted was for MK or Wylex. As far as I'm aware both reasonable names.

MK no longer make consumer units any on sale will soon be gone and spares will be like rocking horse dung. For 100 quid you will get a dual rcd Wylex with type ac rcds completely incompatible with the modern home, between dc leakage back into ac supplies affecting the ability of a type ac rcd to trip at the required current level to ac leakage to earth creating nuisance tripping issues as a result of cumulative earth currents when you have banks of circuits grouped together under one RCD. Going all Type A RCBO doesn't have to be super expensive sure you could buy Hager at 25 quid per device but there are plenty of reliable brands in the 15-18 bracket.

In my defense I'm at least two years out of date but Screwfix are still selling MKs but as R1R2 says they are being discontinued.

Quick question if I may R1R2 we currently have a Wylex covering our house and solar panels. We don't have any problems at the moment but we are extending shortly. Would we be better off changing to a newer system?

@species5618

In my defense I'm at least two years out of date but Screwfix are still selling MKs but as R1R2 says they are being discontinued.

Quick question if I may R1R2 we currently have a Wylex covering our house and solar panels. We don't have any problems at the moment but we are extending shortly. Would we be better off changing to a newer system?

If you are going to put in any smart home tech, led lighting, newer domestic appliances(especially ones with variable speed drives) or a new boiler. Getting upfront surge protection(newer electronics hate the minor surges we frequently get in the mains supply that older electronics didnt really mind) and switching to all type A(alot of white goods and boiler manufacturers specify this now) rcbo may be advantageous to you. Also great to only have one circuit affected if something trips rather than a bank of circuits. If the existing Wylex is sound, less than say 10 years old and has the space you need to expand you may be able to just change the guts of the board over rather than having to do a full blown swap.

Thanks for that. It's only 4 years old and we bought it with space for further expansion.

After a positive start, things seem to be getting tricky with the network (GTC). We are waiting on them to arrange a visit but over email they are saying that the meter should be external not internal and are talking about excavating the garage and "private land" to move it just 60cm. Hopefully we can arrange a visit soon as Eon (our supplier) seemed to suggest it would be relatively simple to move it, they just needed the OK from the network.