Electrical safety  at home      Access control and security    PAT

 Property repairs  Rewire    Contact Us  HOME

Building regulations

Changing consumer units.

More information.

 

 

 

Wire Test Company.

Electrical and Property services.

Electrical installation/testing and general property repairs.

                

For your own safety, always engage the services of a registered electrician.

This site, it's pictures, text and design are copyright Wire Test Co. 2009

 

As we said on the last page, there is no legal requirement to change a satisfactory consumer unit or any part of a satisfactory installation. If you are planning extra circuits and have an old consumer unit without enough fuse ways then you will need to provide adequate control and connection facilities for the new circuits. You can either add another consumer unit alongside the existing one, or a better solution is to change it for one with enough capacity for all of your needs.

There are some things to remember when considering changing your consumer unit.

• Inherently dangerous or faulty wiring will not be corrected by changing the fuseboard.
• Older lighting circuits with  no earth conductor  cannot be re-connected to a new board unless certain conditions are met, namely, all class 1 (earthed metal) light fittings and switch plates are removed, or the lighting circuits rewired in new cable with earth conductor.
• Any dangerous circuit cannot be reconnected to a new board unless the faults are repaired. This may result in some parts of the house being left without supply if the circuit concerned is faulty and you do not authorise repairs to be carried out.
• Main earth bonding will need to be upgraded when a new board is installed.

None of the above need cause you any concern, we can provide you with the necessary tests and corrections if there are any.

If you are in a radius of 5 miles of us, we will be happy to visually inspect your consumer unit and advise on it's safety and whether or not you will have any further work to consider before a unit change. If you live outside the 5 mile radius we are happy to provide the same inspection free,  but we make a charge for travelling depending on where you are situated, please contact us with your postcode for a price for this.