Consumer units
in Liverpool
How it works
How Consumer Units Work At Ideal.
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1.Click
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Pop in your details & tell us about the job. We’ll send you a fast, free, no obligation quote
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2.Confirm
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3.Complete
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We'll send a tried & trusted local electrician to replace your consumer unit or install one for the first time & issue a certificate.
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Consumer Unit World in Liverpool
Our expert team team of trained and NICEIC qualified electricians can provide consumer unit replacement and installation service to upgrade your home electrics. If you have an old, out-of-date consumer unit, regulations make it important you invest in a modern replacement.
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A brand new replacement consumer unit will bring your home up to current safety standards. Ideal’s consumer unit installation service is efficient and reliable to guarantee safety from electric shock in the event of a fault to give you complete peace of mind for years to come.
What exactly is a consumer unit ?
domestic consumer unit Or Commercial consumer unit ?
It is important you understand what is a fuse box This can be more an electrician’s term, only understood by the professionals.
The consumer unit is the place where the supply of power enters your property or the building, essentially a fuse box. The placement of the consumer unit is important. You have to know where it is placed and also have it accessible because if you need to cut off the power, it should be within reach.
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The other thing that you have to understand about the consumer unit is its purpose. A consumer unit is there for one main reason; it controls the distribution of electricity to various circuits in the house or building. Our niceic approved electricians servicing Liverpool will make sure that your new or existing consumer unit complies with all local legislature, is safe and accessible.
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Please give us a call and our friendly helpful team will be happy to assist you with advice on consumer unit installation or repairs in Liverpool.
Do you need a replacement Consumer Unit ?
fitting consumer unit
If your existing fuse board consumer unit is safe and meets current regulations then you most won’t need to upgrade. It can however be difficult to work out whether your unit is safe without any professional testing. The best way to make an assessment is to have an electrical inspection carried out.
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There are a few indicators that show when a consumer unit is in need of upgrade. These could be:
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Your consumer unit is an old style with wooden backing or iron switches which are unsafe for use. This is an issue as it means your unit will not meet current fire regulations and is at risk of fire.
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Your consumer unit does not have an RCD (Residual Current Device). All consumer units Ideal electrical solutions provide in liverpool homes contain these devices which increases the safety of your home electrics.
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Your consumer unithas exposed wires, fuses or circuit breakers. Our electricians come into contact with far too many older model consumer units with exposed parts and missing blanking plates. This is a huge safety concern as it can leave live fuse parts exposed to touch.
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If you are planning a construction or home improvement project such as an extension or a loft conversion, new electric shower or hot tub installation. Any resulting additional wiring and new circuits may require a consumer unit installation or upgrade.
Four reason’s to upgrade your consumer unit
If your property has an out-dated fuse board, it’s certainly a smart decision to have a new one professionally installed. Indeed, there are a number of reasons to upgrade your domestic or commercial consumer unit. Solutions is discussing a few of them:
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Comply with electrical wiring regulations
Many homes around the country contain consumer units that are not compliant with electrical regulations. Having a new fuse board installed will ensure that you adhere to electrical wiring regulation requirements.
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Improve safety
Old fuse boards and non-compliant consumer units jeopardise the electrical safety of your home or commercial property. By upgrading your fuse board, everyone who comes into your property will benefit from increased safety standards and be safe from the risk of electric shock.
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Peace of mind
In complying with electrical regulations and improving the safety standards of your property, you’ll ease your conscience, and benefit from better peace of mind – safe in the knowledge that things are working as they should. Ensuring your electrical system is running efficiently and safely is essential.
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Cost effective home upgrade
If you are worried that upgrading your consumer unit will be expensive, it’s not. Ideal will change your old fuse board or out-dated consumer unit from £350. This includes the electrical certificate to state it complies with building regulations for no additional cost. One price for a complete solution.
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Many homes still have old out-of-date fuse boards. As a home-owner, upgrading or replacing your fuse board will provide much more protection to your property and improve the safety of your electrical installation. But most importantly it will protect you and your family.
Ideal Electrical’s team of experienced and knowledgeable electricians can provide fuse box/fuse board replacements, upgrades and installations.
Complete Consumer Unit Solution
which consumer unit do i need
A consumer unit is the “fuse box” which goes between the electricity meter and all the electrical circuits in the house. Modern units do not contain rewireable fuses, but MCBs. The ones fitted by Ideal electrical solutions also contain an extra protective device either called an RCD or RBCO.
As soon as there is a problem the RCD or RCBO cuts the electrical power to the affected circuit in milliseconds.
This is an essential home upgrade and Ideal’s complete consumer unit replacement cost starts at just £350 making it affordable for unexpected upgrades. That’s not the only reason to upgrade though.
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For our customers in Liverpool our niceic approved electricians are under instructions to make sure that the metal fuse box / metal fuse board is installed in an easy place to access.
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Before our electrician installs the consumer unit in your premise, they will recommend and give you advice so that your unit is placed in an accessible yet safe and secure place that is not prone to cluttering.
RCD VS RCBO
fuse box rcbo
RCD stands for Residual Current Device, split load consumer unit house these RCD's and they are an electrical wiring device that disconnects the circuit as soon as it detects a current leak to the earth wire. It also protects against electrocution or shock caused by direct contact.
RCBOs, are residual current protection devices too. This protection is achieved by monitoring the current flow in the line and neutral. In a healthy circuit, the current flow via the line equals the return flow in the neutral.
However, this return flow may not be equal to the line’s current flow in the event of any abnormalities. A residual current device will sense such a scenario and interrupt the circuit.
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So what exactly is rcbo consumer units ? RCBO stands for Residual Current Breaker with Over-Current. The RCBO combines the functionality of an MCB and RCD. When there is a current leakage, the RCBO trips the entire circuit. Consequently, internal magnetic/thermal circuit breaker components can trip the electronic device when the circuit is overloaded
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rcbo consumer unit wiring diagram
What electrical distribution box should I get ?
RCD In Liverpool
RCD’s usually control multiple circuits. If you’re installation is large enough you may have 2 RCD’s a left and right side controlling several circuits each. You may have heard of the term nuisance tripping ?
If not let me explain, let’s say a lamp bulb breaks and trips the MCB controlling that lighting circuit and also trips the RCD covering that MCB. Now since the RCD has been tripped, you have now lost power to the remaining MCB’s (circuits) that the RCD was covering and this is a nuisance.
Consumer unit’s are most commonly installed using an RCD and MCB approach, This could be one RCD if the installation is small enough or a dual RCD when nessecary.
Now if you had consumer unit with rcbo installed instead of the RCD and MCB combination, when the lamp bulb breaks now, it will trip only this lighting circuits RCBO and the fault does not cascade further rendering other circuits powerless.
Of course adding this granularity to the installation is more expensive, but the benefits are clear when a fault occurs within the installation.
What’s included in a consumer unit upgrade ?
Do You Want A New Fuse Board In Liverpool ?
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Ideal has different prices for different size fuse boards when it comes to consumer unit replacement, this makes sense right. Okay once the size of the fuse board is determined the price then depends on whether you want RCD with MCB combination or RCBO’s.
No matter the choice they are all safe options, not one is safer than the other, but what is common to each selection when you choose to replace fuse board with Ideal is:
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Metal Clad Consumer Unit
Upto 3m of 16mm Earth cable to upgrade main earth bonding
Upto 3m of 25mm Tails to upgrade from meter to consumer unit
1 x Gland pack for tails
Electrical Safety Certificate
Main switch with RCD and MCB’S or Main switch with RCBO’s
Any issues with consumer unit upgrades ?
Whats The Problem With Consumer Unit Upgrades?
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Modern consumer units are more sensitive pieces of equipment than they’re predecessors and this is fantastic news for our safety but new consumer unit old wiring can be troublesome.
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However scenario’s where an old consumer unit would not detect a fault but the new consumer will not accept it do occur.
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So what’s happening here is faults have been discovered due to the upgrade, there’s two ways these faults get handled by Ideal electrical solutions.
If it’s minor we fix it say no more.
If the circuit is really not that important for example an old doorbell circuit that does not get used anymore we remove it.
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In the unlikely event it is a major fault on a critical circuit which will cost materials and considerable labour.
We will make the circuit safe, de-energise it and disconnect the cables to that particular circuit, we do this firstly so you and your family and pets are safe and it allows us to issue a certificate for a healthy installation and the upgrade we have done.
We also quote you the cheapest price possible because we don’t like these issues either, to fix the issue immediately so that the circuit can be part of the electrical certificate.
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In such a situation after the upgrade you receive an electrical safety certificate for your installation either way.
We understand you may want third party knowledge to justify accepting us stating you have a circuit with unsafe issues that are too problematic to be part of your installation now that it contains an RCD.
What's the best consumer unit uk we Recommend
Consumer Units Are Also Called Fuse Boards
bg consumer unit screwfix
recessed consumer unit
hager fuse box
proteus consumer unit
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4 way consumer units
hager 4 way consumer unit
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6 way consumer units
6 way consumer unit screwfix
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10 way consumer units
british general fortress 16-module 10-way populated dual rcd consumer unit
Consumer Units For Sheds
outside fuse box
ip rated consumer unit or ip rated fuse board, whatever you prefer to call them. We install these
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2 way garage board
4 way garage consumer unit
consumer unit regulations 2022
consumer unit mounting regulations
This generally means that all domestic installations must now have a metal consumer unit installed, unless the consumer unit is installed within a non-combustible enclosure.
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Switches and sockets, including door bells, entry phones, light switches, power sockets, TV aerials and telephone jacks, serving habitable rooms throughout the dwelling have their centre line 450-1200mm above floor level.
Consumer units are mounted so that the switches are 1350-1450mm above floor level.”
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how to change fuse in fuse box uk
Can I replace a fuse myself?
We recommend hager rcbo screwfix
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How to change a fuse in 5 simple steps
If you want to have a go at changing a fuse in a traditional fuse box, you will need:
Screwdriver
Fuse wire
Wire cutters
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Step 1:
Turn off all appliances
Before you attempt to repair a fuse, it’s a good idea to turn off all the electrical appliances in your home, including your lights and boiler. If you don’t, your new fuse may blow as soon as the electric is back on.
Step 2:
Make sure your fuse box is off
Your fuse box should automatically switch to ‘off’ when a fuse blows.
Step 3:
Inspect the fuse carriers
Next, remove the fuse carriers one by one to determine which fuse has blown. It should be fairly easy to tell as the fuse will be physically broken or burnt through.
Step 4:
Replacing the fuse wire
Use your screwdriver to loosen the screws in the carrier and remove the broken fuse wire. You will need to replace it with fuse wire of the same amperage. Any higher and the fuse won’t be able to do its job. This could result in an electrical fire.
Thread the new fuse wire through the central part of the fuse (where you will have removed the old wire from.) Wrap the wire around the first screw in a clockwise direction and then the second, before tightening the screws. It’s okay if the wire is a little slack when you’re wrapping it, as it’ll tighten with the screws. If there’s any excess wire, simply snip it off with your wire cutters.
Step 5:
Re-insert the fuse carrier
Next, insert the carrier with the newly fitted fuse wire back into your box. You can then turn on the master switch. Fingers crossed your circuit should now be repaired. If it blows again, it’s likely something is shorting or you have a faulty electrical appliance.
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What to do if you have a modern fuse box
Modern fuse boxes have what are called circuit breakers and they’re far more straightforward to use. They contain lots of mini trip switches and when there’s a fault, the switch for the affected circuit will simply move to a different position or pop out. All you’ll need to do to fix it is unplug your appliances, turn the trip switch back on and check the circuit is working again.
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Rather leave it to the experts?
If you’re not confident in changing an electric fuse yourself or are concerned about faulty wiring, it’s best to get in touch with a qualified electrician. They will be able to carry out the repairs on your behalf and ensure everything is safe.
You’ll greatly benefit from taking out comprehensive home cover. Ideal Electrical Solutions offers home cover you can trust, with quick and convenient call-outs and a 24/7 UK helpline.
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how to feed a second consumer unit
installing a second consumer unit
As a part p registered spark I would recommend using henley blocks and putting your supply tails into these and then new tails from here to both consumer units. a small 6 way split consumer with rcds would do and give you compliance with current 18th edition wiring regs. Also do not forget to take a main earth from one consumer unit to the other. Do not forget this is part p work and notifiable and will then need to be tested and certified
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adding a circuit to a consumer unit uk
installing a second consumer unit
Yes, electrical circuits can be added to a fuse box if certain conditions are met, e.g age of Installation, spare ways available, total current demand will not exceed your main fuse rating etc. Some Installations will meet all of these conditions especially if your Installation is Inspected and tested periodically.
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distribution board vs consumer unit
difference between consumer unit and distribution board
A Distribution Board is an assembly of equipment in an enclosure containing various items such as switches, fuses MCBs etc. A Fuse Board just contains fuses. A Consumer Unit is a DB, that is type tested, and is for use by ordinary persons.
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Keeping this in consideration, what is the purpose of a distribution board?
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A distribution board also known as panel board, breaker panel, or electric panel is a component of an electricity supply system that divides an electrical power feed into subsidiary circuits, while providing a protective fuse or circuit breaker for each circuit in a common enclosure.
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Also to know, what is an RCD consumer unit?
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An 'RCD Incomer' consumer unit is a special type of protection device, generally used in workshops, garages, garden offices and sheds which use small numbers of circuits. That means that a residual current fault on any circuit will knock out power to all other circuits.
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Choose Experience and Skilled Electricians
Ideal Electrical Solutions Are Fuse Board Specialists
When choosing an electrician to carry out your fuse box consumer unit replacement it is important to consider more than just price. The right electrician for the job will be fully qualified, certified, insured to carry out the work and compliant with the latest electrical wiring regulations.
Your fuse board is the main electrical hub in your property, taking a pivotal role in all electrical aspects. If you have a fuse board replacement carried out that it is below the necessary standards then you are putting you property at risk and endangering anyone that occupies the property.
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For the highest standards Electrical efficiency and Safety, get in touch today to book a niceic approved electrician.