New Fuse Box

You have a fuse box. It was there when you moved in. Its probably been there since the house was built and everything works. So why would you need a new one?

Times change, progress is made and there are reasons to upgrade your fusebox to a modern consumer unit.

In 2008 the wiring regulations were rewritten to the 17th edition.  The 17th edition regulations replace the …………16th edition and there were a number of important changes. A major one is the need to protect cables buried within the fabric of buildings (within walls, floors etc) at a depth less than 50 millimetres by a residual current device (RCD). RCDs sense any leaking electricity and turn off the circuit immediately.

This means that if you drill through a wall to hang a picture and catch a live wire the RCD will trip and turn off the current saving you from a shock. All new 17th edition consumer units contain RCDs for this purpose.

Other sources of leaks could be rainwater leaking into outside lights, cables damaged by rodents, damp seeping through walls into socket outlets, cables damaged through movement of the house (subsidence), damaged appliances, boilers that leak onto internal circuit boards, running over the lawnmower flex etc. An RCD is very sensitive and will safely disconnect  the circuit as soon as a dangerous situation develops rather than leave a shock hazard live until someone touches it.

If you intend to rent out your property then its a good idea to change an old rewireable fuse box for a modern consumer unit. In the event of a trip then your tenant can reset the switch. If the fuse needs to be rewired then they may not know how to do this or even worse they may use the wrong fuse wire. Next time there’s a problem instead of the fuse blowing the cable is damaged and a very expensive repair bill is on the way.