Fuseboard Upgrade

GreeBo

Hey all,

I'm in the market for a fuseboard upgrade but I'm wondering what implications this will have.

I understand that I might need new tails/earth and to move the meter to an outside wall...but could it result in the house needing a rewire due to regulations (or perhaps due to safety)?

House is covered in skirting-board level sockets which I was planning to replace, but the whole house (bar some recent upgrades) are all black/red cabling and the fuseboard itself is old style.

We are planning some major upgrades to the house, but not for another 2-3 years (just moved in) so ideally I'd not turn the entire place into a building site if it all possible.

Its a 4-bed, 2000sqft detatched house if that helps with any ballparks prices...

Explosive_Cornflake

What's the advantage of doing the fuse boards upgrade now?

I recently did the whole lot, but I wouldn't see the point in doing just the board on it's own.

If you're doing a rewire, you can run all the cables to the new board, and then wire from there. Switch over can be done quickly then.

GreeBo

Explosive_Cornflake wrote: »

What's the advantage of doing the fuse boards upgrade now?

I recently did the whole lot, but I wouldn't see the point in doing just the board on it's own.

If you're doing a rewire, you can run all the cables to the new board, and then wire from there. Switch over can be done quickly then.

Just that we don't have a dodgy old fuseboard...if something blows today we are screwed as there are bugger all replacement old fuses about.

Doing the board on its own means the benefits of a new board without the hassle (and cost!) of a whole house rewire.

There is going to be wall chasing and floorboards up all over the place...

2011

Explosive_Cornflake wrote: »

What's the advantage of doing the fuse boards upgrade now?

For a start socket circuits would benefit from having RCD protection.

However a good analogy would be installing a new engine in an old car, it will improve some issues but plenty of underlying problems will remain.

As there are sockets on the skirting boards and red and black cabling has been used this is a strong indication that the wiring is quite old. There have been significant changes to the rules since then, for that reason the installation is most likely in need of a complete rewire.

2011

GreeBo wrote: »

I understand that I might need new tails/earth and to move the meter to an outside wall...but could it result in the house needing a rewire due to regulations (or perhaps due to safety)?

There is every chance that during this work issues will be uncovered that determine a rewire is necessary.

House is covered in skirting-board level sockets which I was planning to replace, but the whole house (bar some recent upgrades) are all black/red cabling and the fuseboard itself is old style.

As above this points to an old installation that was designed for smaller loads and complied with more lenient regulations.

We are planning some major upgrades to the house, but not for another 2-3 years (just moved in) so ideally I'd not turn the entire place into a building site if it all possible.

The sooner you do it the less it will cost.

Its a 4-bed, 2000sqft detatched house if that helps with any ballparks prices...

Not really. There are so many variables it is a bit like saying “how much would a family car cost?”