Fuse Board Change

A fuse board, also sometimes known as a consumer unit, should be easy to find and is where the electricity in your home is controlled and distributed.

It’s important that you know where your fuse board is in case you ever need to turn the electricity off in an emergency. It may contain three types of devices – the main switch, fuses and/or circuit breakers, and Residual Current Devices (RCDs).

Main Switch

This allows you to turn off the electricity supply to your home. You might have more than one mains switch, for example if your home has electric storage heaters. In this case you may have a separate fuse board.

Residual Current Devices (RCD)

These are switches that trip a circuit under dangerous conditions, and instantly disconnect the electricity.

Circuit Breakers

These are automatic protection devices in the fuse board that switch off a circuit if they detect a fault. They are similar in size to fuses, but give more precise protection. When they ‘trip’, you can simply reset the switch. But make sure you correct the fault first.

Rewireable Fuses (may be found in place of circuit breakers)

Rewirable fuses have a piece of special fuse wire running between two screws. When a fault or overload current flows through the fuse wire, it will become hot and melt. The melted fuse breaks the circuit, disconnecting the faulty circuit and keeping you safe.


Whatever type of fuse board you have or whatever reason you would like to replace it, a fuse board change is completed in a few stages:

Stage 1

We will firstly test the electrics in the property before changing the fuse board. These electrical tests are as follows;

Once this sequence of tests is carried out and the existing installation is proved to be electrically sound, we will then go ahead with changing the fuse board.

Stage 2

If there is an electrical fault with the existing electrical installation, then this will need to be rectified before the fuse board is replaced. This will be done by showing and explaining to you what the fault is and how we are going to rectify the problem. You will be given a quote for this works and before commencing we will get your permission.

Stage 3

Once the installation has been inspected and tested thoroughly, and is proved to be electrically sound the board can then be replaced, wired up, then labelled correctly for your convenience. We would then complete an electrical installation certificate and energise the installation so you can enjoy peace of mind knowing it is safe and reliable.

You will receive on completion an electrical installation certificate and a letter from our Part P scheme (ELECSA) to prove the right people have been notified.