The consumer unit is the beating heart of your home and is also referred to as the ‘Switch Board’ or ‘Fuse Box’ or ‘Fuse Switch Box’ and therefore a consumer unit replacement is a very common job to request from an electrician. The consumer unit routes in the mains power from the street into your home and then distributes the power through fused (safe) circuits around your home. Depending on your wiring, we generally expect to see a ‘ring main‘ or loop of wiring powering a set of the same accessories such as plugs or lights and usually on a single floor e.g. 1 fuse will power all lights on the first floor.
Back in January 2016 regulations governing the installation of consumer units changed to include a requirement that states “consumer units and similar switchgear assemblies in domestic premises to have a non-combustible enclosure“. This basically means that consumer units must now be metal and almost all units installed before 2016 were plastic. The reason for this is due to the cause of a number of house fires to be due to a fault in the consumer unit and then the housing setting on fire and fueling the fires enough to spread. If you are rewiring a house then you will need a consumer unit replacement but it’s highly recommended that you proactively quote for a consumer unit replacement as fire safety is ever so important.
What’s Involved In A Consumer Unit Replacement?
Consumer unit replacement is a fairly straightforward job as there are very few options to choose from other than how many fuses or circuits your likely to have in the next 5-10 years. We recommend that you go for a consumer unit with a few more fuses sockets than you currently need in the event that you want to install another electric shower for example or build out a loft conversion or extension.
The job requires us to shut down all power to your home, disconnect your circuits from the current fuse box and then remove the unit from the wall. This is then followed up by mounting the new consumer unit and reconnecting all of the wires to the new fuses and installing. We will then test every circuit to ensure they are safe and functioning efficiently.
How Long Does A Switch Board Replacement Take?
We generally estimate that a consumer unit replacement can be achieved in a day, sometimes significantly less, sometimes a little bit more. We do sometimes find problems with wiring when we replacing consumer units which if addressed will add extra time to the build but we will always discuss any concerns with you before embarking on any additional changes. If you are worried that the wiring in your house is old and likely in need of replacing but you want to replace your consumer unit without the added costs of rewiring then we can run a fault finding test before we start the work to replace the consumer unit. This will enable you to manage plan in advance and make an informed decision on what you want to do. Bear in mind that once we start the work, we won’t be able to sign off the finished work if there are issues with the safety of your wiring.
If you’d like to find out more about a consumer unit replacement then please get in touch with Eyre Electrical on 07557-258-166
Our electrical services operate across Hampshire, UK and here are some of the locations that we cover (for a full list check here):
- Portsmouth
- Southsea
- Waterlooville
- Havant
- Cosham
- Hambledon
- Denmead
- Lovedean
- Cowplain
- Fareham
- Chichester
We also offer a wide range of other specialist services including:
- Rewires
- Consumer unit replacements
- Kitchen electrics
- Electrical PAT testing
- Fault finding
- New build domestic wiring design and installation
- Extensions
- Plug sockets
- Underfloor heating
- Garden and outdoor lighting
