Electricians - your thoughts on this fuse box?

purplebutterfly

A house we're looking at has this fuse box.  Obviously it's old and needs replacing but I  have no idea how old or if it will cause major problems bringing it up to current regulations.  

It's in a 1930's 3 bedroom semi detached house with an extended kitchen. 

The rest of the house seems okay ie all plug sockets have been raised up from skirting boards at some point -  but we'd get an electrical check in addition to a survey.  

Just wondered if this raises any red flags in terms of size of job or cost? 

neilmcl

I don't initially see any issues there, the owner has simply replaced the old fuses with Wylex MCBs. I did that with mine 20 years ago and has worked perfectly fine since.

molerat

I can hear air being sucked through teeth

binao

Replace with a modern RCD box with a cover that fits. 

Looks like the old cover will not fit. 

neilmcl

binao said:

Replace with a modern RCD box with a cover that fits. 

Looks like the old cover will not fit. 

I suspect that's in a cupboard.

purplebutterfly

neilmcl said:

binao said:

Replace with a modern RCD box with a cover that fits. 

Looks like the old cover will not fit. 

I suspect that's in a cupboard.

Yes, it  is in the meter cupboard by the front door.   The meters are smart meters if that makes any difference

tacpot12

One obvious problem with bringing it into line with the current regulations is that you don't have enough circuits. The regulations like you to have a minimum of two circuits for lighting and a separate circuit for fridges and freezers. However, such improvements only affect safety very marginally assuming nothing is overloaded. If the house has more than 100m2 of floor area and only one ring circuit for sockets, then you would have to add another circuit and this could be quite disruptive, but often the easiest way to solve this is to rewire the kitchen as a separate circuit, which can be necessary anyway if you intend to have a lot of appliances in the kitchen. Having to add an extra circuit for sockets could be a bit disruptive, and might need some redecorating, but you are likely to be doing this anyway. I paid about £450 to have my old fuse board (like yours but without the MCBs) changed out for an 18th Edition compliant unit and it didn't need any new circuits adding. 

Adding RCD protection would be the biggest improvement that new consumer unit would make. You should also consider if you want to have a charging point for an electric vehicle in future. It may help to future-proof the electrics if the electrician knows about this and another high demand items that you might want to fit, like a heat pump, induction hobs, etc.

Rodders53

It's an old (ancient) Wylex rewirable fuse board with MCB replacements (slightly better that rewirable, where people would fit the wrong gauge of fuse wire).  These upgrade MCB parts are still on sale today https://www.screwfix.com/c/electrical-lighting/mcbs/cat7230022#category=cat7230022&brand=wylex

You'll not have enough sockets in the house probably, none are RCD protected and it's probably wise to budget for a full rewire and upgrade (and be pleasantly surprised if some circuits can be re-used),

NB It is almost certainly perfectly safe to live in for a while so you can decide where and what you want to do to upgrade (including where sockets are needed / wanted / nice to have and the same for lights on ceilings walls etc.,..

We sold the late in-Laws' bungalow with a similar board in just 4-5 years ago.  I rewired my first home in 1980/81 replacing a similar board.

Belenus

molerat said:

I can hear air being sucked through teeth

All the way from Derry.   

tacpot12

Rewiring the property may not be necessary. The PVC cable could be good for another 20 years or more, but if you can have an EICR done, then get advice here about what the IR readings mean. 

purplebutterfly

I really appreciate the help.  I was half expecting a response of "don't touch it unless you have a spare 30K".   Does it look like something that can be done under £1000 - assuming the wiring is okay for now.  I'm in the North West and not in a city