The best way to change a fuse on a fuseboard   

Every house should have a a modern electrical fuseboard installed. In the UK this is called an RCD unit or Residual Current Device. It guards the entire electrical system against any electrical fault such as an overload. The fuseboard usually consists of a main switch, circuit breakers and several fuses. Every circuit breaker or fuse matches up to a certain area of electrical wiring in your house.

When an electrical fault happens the circuit breaker will automatically shut off or 'trip'. In an old fashioned fuseboard the fuse will 'blow'. The electricity in that certain part of the house will be cut which prevents fires breaking out due to electrical overload. The disadvantage of a fusebox over a circuit breaker is that once a fuse blows, it must be changed, while when a circuit breaker trips, you just have to reset it. Changing a fuse in an old fashioned fuse board is what we'll discuss here.

Of course, safety is the most important thing to consider when changing or altering anything on your electrical system. Turn off the main switch on the board prior to changing a fuse. Turn off the lights and unplug any appliances that are covered by that fuse. Always change a fuse with the exact rating. A fuse with a higher rating will permit too much electricity to run through the circuit and that may cause a fire because of overload.

In cases where a fuse keeps blowing, get a qualified electrician in London. Maybe it is time to replace your switchboard with a modern RCD unit. Fuseboards are usually labeled, so you can see which fuse protects a certain part of your house. However, if your fuseboard doesn’t have any labeling, have an electrician label it for you the next time. This information will certainly make it easier for you in locating a blown fuse next time.

Changing a blown fuse is fairly straight forward. Follow these steps when changing fuses:

1. Turn off the main switch on your switchboard
2. Turn off all the lights and unplug any appliances in the affected area
3. Check the labels on your switchboard. Remove the particular fuse that corresponds to the area in your house that ran out of power
4. If your switchboard doesn’t have any labeling or if you have difficulty in pinpointing the blown fuse, you will have to pull out and examine every fuse until you find the blown one
5. The blown fuse will be fairly obvious becasue the wires inside will have seperated when they burned out
6. Ensure that your fuse is the right rating. You can usually see the rating printed on the fuse itself. Ratings of lighting circuits range from 5 amps to 10 amps, 10 amps to 15 amps are for socket outlets, and ratings that are higher than 15 amps are for power hungry appliances like cookers
7. Replace the fuse and turn the main switch on
8. Test and check all the lights and appliances in the affected area of the house

Congratulations, you have successfully repalced the fuse.

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