Bathroom refit, do I need a RCD?

[Johnstar]

Hi all,

I'm refitting my bathroom in my first floor flat (top floor) built around 1989. It has 2 CUs, one for night storage and one for 24h electrics, they are of the 1980's era Crabtree, the label on the side says BS5486ART 13 CM16.

The hot and cold are run in plastic from the Immersion heater located outside the bathroom.
The mains water is supplied to the flat in plastic and then copper to the kitchen sink and toilet, this is "bonded" to the CU earth terminal.

Items with potential in the room :
The toilet has a short piece of copper pipe in the Outside Zone to the cistern.
There is a fan isolation switch in the Outside Zone (the fan unit is in the loft).
There is a shaver socket in the Outside Zone (isolation transformer type).

The ceiling is 2.45m high and therefore in the Outside Zone I believe.
I would like to fit fire rated IP65 downlights to the existing lighting circuit (which also has the fan and shaver socket on it).
So in short, there will be nothing with any potential in Zones 0,1 or 2. and there will be no new circuits.

Am I right in thinking that changing a central light to 4 downlights is not classed as a new circuit?.

I know a RCD is desirable but is it strictly necessary in this instance?

The flat will need to pass a EICR but I realy don't need the expense of changing the CUs as I'm on a budget.

Cheers,
John

 

[westward10]

The alteration will need to comply with current Regulations so bathroom or not 30ma rcd protection is required.

 

[Johnstar]

Thanks Westward,
I feared as much, that's why I went into such detail to make sure. I'm not an electrician and don't know the current regs, only what I've gleaned.

What are my options?
RCBO?
Surface mount RCD?
New CU?
Anything else?

If I go with a new CU, does this mean I will need to replace both CU's? Each has its own feed from the meter, the storage heat times are controlled by SSE "teleswitch" and the meter switches on the extra live out when commanded.
Cheers

 

[westward10]

Is your consumer unit Crabtree Starbreaker.

 

[Johnstar]

I don’t think so, here are some photos

 

[Johnstar]

Looks like an SB6000, is that a Starbreaker

 

[westward10]

No they are SB6000. They did make rcbos for them but were two module and would now be second hand. Finding one for a 6 or 10A lighting circuit is likely to be difficult. It is likely they never existed.

 

[Johnstar]

Thanks.
so the RCBO route is out really.
If I were to just replace the central light with a new modern one, would that also need an RCD?
And a difficult question to answer, but I won’t hold you to it, if nothing changes, is the Flat likely to fail a EICR on the Consumer Units alone I.e. age and lack of ECB, assuming everything else in the flat is ok?

 

[DPG]

Are you going to be renting this flat out to tennants?

 

[Johnstar]

Hi DPG,
Not at the moment but I may do in the future.