How to change a consumer unit / fuse box?

Question

Does anyone know how a DIYer like myself can replace the consumer unit in my house. I have an old fashioned fusebox at the moment.

I'm confident I can wire it up properly but I'd need to know how to turn off the supply to the house.

Any thoughts.

Answer 1

You will f**k up if you do this, to isolate the tails into your fuse board you have to cut and then open the meter which IS ILLEGAL if you arent working for an authorised person.
The cut outs are r at 240v 100/80/60A which will kill you on contact im not telling a unqualified potentially incompetent person how to do this job!

Answer 2

Changing a consumer unit is a fairly straightforward job providing you have some spare on the wires from all the circuits because you will find that a modern consumer unit with an RCCD will be wired differently than your existing one.

Having said that to complete the job you will need to have the electrical supply from the Electricity Board main supply fuse turned off, this is normally sealed. You can arrange for them to come along isolate the supply so you can do the job and then come back and reinstate the supply when you've finished.

The real problem you will face is that they will not re-instate the supply without a certificate from an approved electrician.

An electrician will probably do the job for about £300-00p which would include the new consumer unit

Answer 3

You can't begin to do this yourself you have no idea of what's involved.
Before a P registered electrician can even start on the job he will have to test your whole house electrics to make sure there are no other problems lurking in the wings. You need specialist equipment for this and know-how to use it and interprete the results.
That's why he spent years training to do this and had to pass exams on the way.
Leave it to the professionals, he will then leave you with a certificate to prove it has been done correctly. This can then be passed on should you intend to sell your property at a later date.
My advice to you is to get three quotes from known or recommended electricians.
Don't attempt it yourself you will only cost you more in the long run.

Answer 4

The UK building code now states that you need to either get a qualified electrician to carry out the work, or at least sign off the work as safe before you can turn it back on again.
If you do not do this, your home insurance will be invalid and you cannot sell your house until either is done. Either way, you can't change sockets in your kitchen these days without one of the above being done. My guess is, if you need to ask the question, you shouldn't be doing it.

Answer 5

If think that it might be worth ignoring the UK regulations and still do it yourself. Firstly you could have difficulty reselling your house if you cannot prove that the work was done by a qualified person. Secondly if anything were to go wrong and you tried to make an insurance claim the assessor could point out that you had broken the terms of your policy. He would just walk away. I could go on with lots of examples. Take the earlier advice get someone qualified.

Answer 6

This is definitely not a DIYer project,first of all the power company will require a reason to disconnect and the finished job will have to be inspected, a licensed electrician is the only person allowed to do this change.Call an electrician!!

Answer 7

You will need a permit on this one. I strongly suggest that you get an electrician to do this work. If you make a mistake with the imcoming line, there is no fuse till you get back to the transformer and that is a lot of power to take to ground.

You will also void your insurance if you do the work without the permit.

It is a good idea, but hand this one off to a professional.

Answer 8

I am assuming you are in the UK.

The consumer unit is the property of your local electricity company. As such, you must not do ANY work at all to it.

It is dangerous to even consider doing something like this yourself. You are neither qualified nor insured to conduct such work. DIY on the mains electricity supply to your home is a seriously bad idea.

You should contact your local electricity company and request one of their engineers to come out and do the work for you. They will assess the equipment themselves and organise the replacement if they think it really is necessary to do so. Also, there will be no cost to you for this service.

Answer 9

before the electric meter is down to the electricity board after theelectric meter is down to the home owner but don't attempt it yourself it is against the law and you will be prosecuted in the uk you have to be part p registered to do the job and it has to be a 17th edition double RCD fuse board that is fitted before this is carried out all the electrical wiring and light fittings and sockets in the property need to be tested to make sure that its safe www.emergencyelectriciansinmanchester.com

Answer 10

Don't try it yourself, its not hard if you know what your doing but the problem is you must break the electricity boards seals to remove the main fuse which feeds the consumer unit.