Fuse Box and Consumer Unit Replacement in Sussex

The clearest signs are a wooden backboard, rewireable fuses with visible fuse wire, a mix of aged brands and add-on boxes, no RCD test button, scorch marks or a fishy burning smell, and breakers that trip for no obvious reason. If your Sussex home still has its original board and was wired before the nineties, it almost certainly predates RCD protection. We will tell you honestly whether it needs replacing, and put it in writing either way.

Since Amendment 3 of the 17th Edition, consumer units in homes must be made of non-combustible material, which in practice means steel. If a loose connection overheats inside the board, a metal enclosure contains the fire instead of feeding it. Older plastic boards do the opposite, which is why they feature so often in fire investigation reports and why an EICR flags them in combination with other defects.

Yes. Much of our work across Sussex is in converted flats, particularly the Regency and Victorian conversions of the coastal towns. We coordinate access with agents and tenants, work around shared risers and landlord supplies, and issue the certificates your freeholder or letting agent will ask for. If the meter position or supply arrangement is unusual, the survey catches it before the day, not during it.

No, only your own supply. We isolate at your meter position, and in most Sussex properties that affects nothing beyond your own front door. Where the cutout or supply equipment is shared or needs the network operator's attention, we spot that at survey and arrange it in advance so the installation day still runs to plan.

There is no law that forces you to change a working board in your own home, so the honest answer is not always. But if yours has rewireable fuses, no RCD test button, or a plastic case that an EICR has flagged, a new fuse box is the most effective single safety upgrade the house can have. Send us a photo and we will give you a straight yes or no, and we say no more often than you might expect.

Working is not the same as safe. An old board carries current happily right up to the moment a fault arrives, and that is exactly when it lets you down: rewireable fuses give no shock protection and react slowly to overloads. We would rather you upgrade old fuse boxes on your own schedule, at a planned price from £425, than in a hurry after a near miss. An EICR from £175 will tell you how urgent yours really is.

Replace it when an EICR grades the installation unsatisfactory, when you have a faulty consumer unit that trips, buzzes or shows scorch marks, or before major work such as a rewire, an extension or an EV charger. Age matters too: boards fitted before RCDs became standard are decades behind current protection. In practice, most customers replace old consumer units when they buy, renovate or let a property in Sussex, because that is when the certificate matters most.

Not automatically. A plastic consumer unit in good condition, with RCD protection and sound connections, is normally recorded as an observation on an EICR rather than a failure. Once anything else needs correcting though, a metal consumer unit upgrade is the sensible fix, because the regulations have required a non-combustible enclosure since 2016. Every plastic fuse box replacement we carry out uses a steel 18th Edition board with a Type 2 surge protection device included.

Strictly speaking, no. The 18th Edition of the Wiring Regulations covers consumer units rather than fuse boxes, but the name has stuck and we know exactly what you mean. Ask us for an 18th Edition fuse box and you will get a steel 18th Edition consumer unit with RCD or RCBO protection and a Type 2 surge protection device built in.