Now this question will depend on the age of your home, the age of the fuse board (or box), when your home was last rewired, and whether you have, or are planning to carry out some major renovation work. If you have done, or are seriously considering the latter, it is worthwhile getting your fuse board checked out to make sure it is up to the job of the extra electrical demand.
However, you shouldn’t go and just replace the old fuse board just because it is old. You are recommended to have an Electrical installation Condition Report (EICR) carried out every ten years, which should highlight any problems with the wiring or fuse board. The odds are, if the fuse board is old, then the wiring is too!
There are a few pointers that you should replace the old fuse board because it is not keeping up with the demands placed upon it:
· Flickering lights
· Unresponsive sockets
· A burning smell
· Frequent ‘tripping’
· Scorch or burn marks on the fuse board
If you are a homeowner in Leicester and are unsure about the safety of your fuse board or have experienced any of the problems above, give MJE Electrical a call or send me a picture of your fuse board and I can give you an idea of any regulation changes since it was installed or whether you have residual circuit breakers fitted to some or all circuits.
The dangers of an old fuse board
The most important reason to replace the old fuse board is because of electrical safety issues. Although it may have complied with the regulations at the time it was fitted, these have probably now been superseded by new regulations for consumer electrical safety. If something should happen and your fuse box does not have the necessary protection, there could be a risk of fire or an electric shock.
Earth leakage
When an electrical current returns to the ground along a different path than the one intended, we call that an earth leakage. If your fuse board doesn’t have circuit breakers, the person holding the appliance at the time could get an electric shock. A perfect example of this is if someone cuts through the power cable of their electric lawn mower. If circuit breakers are installed on the fuse board, nothing will happen – the lawn mower will just cut out. But if no circuit breakers are present, the person holding the lawn mover handles could receive a powerful electric shock.
Safety devices on consumer units
It is mandatory in the UK for modern consumer units to have several safety devices to protect against surges, earth leakage, and over-current, which could cause electric shocks or fires.
Arc Fault Detection Devices (AFDD)
As of September 2022, new work involving board changes or Socket circuits should have these to comply with the new regulations. In addition it is a recommendation to upgrade to these even if you don't do additional work. These are crucial to Electrical Safety in that they detect loose connections which are starting to arc. Arcing leads to high temperatures and ultimately electrical fires, and so these devices detect and prevent that.
Surge Protection Device (SPD)
This is designed for protection against a sudden surge in electricity (over-voltage), which could damage electrical devices and appliances and cause serious injury to you or your family, even death in some cases.
Residual Current Device (RCD)
This is a circuit breaker that is trips out immediately when it recognises an earth leakage, saving our gardener in the earth leakage example above from serious injury.
Miniature Circuit Breaker (MCB)
Also known as a trip switch, this small circuit breaker is designed to interrupt an electrical current if is exceeds a certain threshold. Modern consumer units normally have resettable MCBs.
The advantages of replacing an old fuse board with a consumer unit
When you replace the old fuse board with a modern consumer unit, you are making sure your family is safe by protecting them from power surges when they use electrical equipment or appliances. They will also be protected if they overload a circuit by using multiple socket adaptors/extension leads, or if they are using an appliance that has faulty wiring or develops a fault. The RCDs and MCBs react within a millisecond to cut the power. That doesn’t mean that these faults won’t happen again, but in the unlikely event that they do, the safety devices installed in the consumer unit will ensure any faults don’t result in an electric shock.
The risk of an electrical fire will also be greatly reduced because in the event of a fault, the power is automatically disconnected, reducing the heat build-up that can often lead to a fire.
At MJE Electrical, we want you to have a long-lasting installation that keeps working effectively and makes sure you and your family are safe. We get the job done quickly and with minimum mess and fuss. In addition we are:
· A Registered Competent Person
· NICEIC registered
· Part P electrical safety approved
· Trustworthy - have undergone a Police Disclosure Check