Questions about consumer units / fuse boxes

JRT404

Ectophile wrote: »

You should get an EIC (electrical installation certificate) when something new is installed. An EICR is a report on an existing installation.

A quick guide to the jargon:

MCB = Miniature Circuit Breaker. Acts like a fuse to prevent overloads and fires, but unlike a fuse you can turn it on again.

RCD = Residual Current Device. They used to call them "Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker", but someone decided to change the name to something that nobody would understand. Stops you being electrocuted if you accidentally touch something live, by shutting off the power very quickly.

RCBO = Residual Current Breaker With Overload. Another over-complicated name for something that's just an RCD and an MCB in the same module.

Modern consumer units should either have two (or more) RCDs, each protecting some of the circuits*, or lots of RCBOs. Or even a mixture of the two - provided that every circuit goes through an RCD or RCBO.

If you have an electrician in mind, you may want to ask them what they would prefer to install. Electricians hate it when customers hand them cheap and shoddy kit to install. They may even be able to get a trade discount if they buy it themselves.

*That's what a "split load" board is. If all the circuits are on one RCD, then one fault blacks out the whole house and you're left stumbling around in the dark trying to find what tripped it.

really useful thanks