Electrical question re consumer unit
 

Hi, I'll start with....I know almost nothing about electrics and could never get my head around ampy, watts and volts. In the UK I did some basic electrics at home, such as adding sockets etc but I don't like to do much here as I don't understand radial circuits.
Anyway, we live in an old vályog house, more than 110 years old and are in the process of have the amps increased and a full rewire. The electricians have been here for 2 1/2 days and have just finished the first part of the rewire. We went into the kitchen this afternoon as they were getting ready to leave and were presented with a new consumer unit mounted high up on the wall. So high, in fact, that we need step ladders to open the door to flip the switches if anything trips. The electrician said that regs say that it must be mounted at least 2 metres off the ground. This sounds ridiculous to me and I wondered if anyone KNOWS what the regs are, if the electrician is correct in what he says or if he's trying to pull a fast one and mounted it high for his benefit and now doesn't want to lower it. I've tried looking online and all I seem to be able to find is UK regs with suggest a mounting height of around 1.2-1.4 metres.

Re: Electrical question re consumer unit
 

Don't have a definitive answer now but our consumer units (here and 2 previous apartments) have their consumer units at high level (2 metres +). By chance we have an electrician calling in the next few days, I will ask.

Re: Electrical question re consumer unit
 

Thank you

Re: Electrical question re consumer unit
 

I don't know the regs, but my consumer unit is almost touching the ceiling.

Re: Electrical question re consumer unit
 

I'm not sure of the current regs but if the electrician says a min. of 2 m then if you accept what he says this means that a typical adult would be able to reach the unit to reset a tripped circuit breaker from standing on the floor. Any higher than the minimum is optional and he should have asked about its location before installation.

In Hungary in wall cabling is generally put 30 cm below the ceiling, if this is the case with your wiring then the easy choice for the electrician is to put the consumer unit at that level (otherwise it means running the cabling down and back up the wall) If it is installed already then you will have a battle to get it moved free of charge.

Re: Electrical question re consumer unit
 

that must be for light switches surely, the only reason I can see it being that low would be for wheelchair users

2m sounds about right, ours is a little higher (it's not like it needs to be used apart from the monthly check)

Re: Electrical question re consumer unit
 

Thank you all for the replies. It seems that it's standard practice to mount them high up. I realise that I should rarely need to touch it but it's more of an issue if my wife ever needs to as she doesn't like standing on step ladders.
I've just measured the height of the unit and the bottom is about 215cm from the floor. The other problem is that it's mounted above a worktop, meaning that we can't stand directly below it but away from it.
The bottom line is that it should have been discussed with us beforehand what they were doing and where they were going to mount it. Hey ho, I should have realised that communication is not Hungarian tradesmen's strong point 😆
The guy will be back in a couple of weeks when we get the new exterior cabling and new meter box etc done. He'll also be back in spring to rewire all the outbuildings.