Fuse Board Replacement or Replacement consumer unit Plymouth Devon
Older fuse boards (also known as fuse boxes or consumer units) are prone to malfunctioning with considerable impact on the electrics in your home or business premises.
Flickering lighting, unresponsive sockets or switches, and power-cuts are some of the signs of fuse board deterioration. Restore your fuse boards to their peak efficiency by upgrading to a modern 18th Edition consumer unit fitting.
Plymouth Sparky will install a metal fuse board with full RCD protection (Residual Current Device). There are many reasons to upgrade and install a new fuse box, and an RCD is one of them. It is potentially lifesaving in an event where someone touches a live wire. It can also offer some protection against electrical fires.
As well as replacing the fuse board we undertake full testing of your electrical circuits and supply points to ensure they are working and safe. On completion, we would issue you with an Electrical Installation Report. Ensuring that your electrician is suitably qualified is very important as badly fitted installations can be hazardous.
Only choose a qualified electrical contractor to work on a fuse box installation, this is a must as this job is for experienced electrical engineers only, It is also notifiable work and falls under the building regulations.
We upgrade various fuse board fittings according to BS7671 regulations. Our professional services are sure to get your electrical installations running more efficiently.
Our team of electricians is skilled and experienced at working on both domestic electrical systems and large commercial fuse boards. Contact us today for system troubleshooting and fuse board upgrades. PLYMOUTH SPARKY 01752 905260
Requirements of BS 7671
Replacing a consumer unit is classed as making an alteration and falls into the category of new work. This must be designed, erected and verified in accordance with BS 7671 as required by Regulation 110.1.2 (vi) and the safety of the existing installation must not be impaired as stated in Regulation 610.4.
Regulation 132.16 states the requirements of additions and alterations –this means existing equipment, including the distributor’s equipment – must be adequate for the alteration. The earthing and bonding must also be adequate for the installation.
The design will also need to consider Regulation 415.1 for additional protection by 30mA RCD and consideration of how to protect against unwanted tripping of the RCD(s) will be needed to comply with the requirements of Section 314, Division of Installation.
Account must also be taken of the manufacturer’s instructions as required by Regulations 134.1.1 and 510.3.
On completion, identification notices in accordance with Section 514 will need to be fitted and an EIC must be issued in accordance with the requirements of Sections 631 and 632, as stated in Regulation 631.1. Finally, the work must be notified (for England and Wales).
Industry best practice
After looking at all the requirements I’ve referred to, it shows just how easy it is to get something wrong. I will now set out what is considered to be industry best practice.
The customer should be encouraged to have an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) carried out before replacing the consumer unit. This will help the contractor to establish that the requirements of Regulation 132.16 have been met to allow the new consumer unit installation to take place. Suitability of the existing earthing and bonding arrangements will be confirmed, as well as the suitability of the DNO’s equipment and meter tails, including polarity of the incoming supply.
Any faults or defects will be highlighted at this stage – allowing for remedial work to be planned and carried out as part of the consumer unit replacement or prior to its replacement. More importantly, the contractor will not be stuck at the end of the day with faults to clear that were not built into the original contract.
The EICR test results will also be available to help with the design and selection of protective devices for the new consumer unit. Remember, care is needed with the selection of protective devices to ensure that maximum disconnection times are met and that the maximum fault current breaking capacity of the device is not exceeded. It’s too late if you install the devices without prior testing and then find out that they are not adequately rated.