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Your Fuse Box
If it has been suggested you
read this article, it is probably time to consider upgrading
your consumer unit/fuse box to one of the above.
Assuming you already know that
the main benefit of the Miniature Circuit Breaker is not
that you can just switch it back on, but that in fact that
it will disconnect much quicker than an old rewritable fuse
and is thus work more efficiently, we can move straight on
to the Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker (Now know as the RCD,
Residual Current Device),
The best of the new state of the
art consumer unit’s are “Split Load” Without going into too
much boring detail that means you (or your electrician) can
choose what circuits are given protection by the RCD and
what is protected by the main switch Or another RCD with a
slower disconnection time.
For instance, I would not think
about having the lighting circuits on the RCD side because
if it was tripped by an earth fault on one of the power
circuits your house would be left in darkness.Another sensible idea is to have
the freezer on an independent circuit on the switch side so
if the power trips your frozen goodies are not lost. Also,
for obvious reasons, the security alarm is best on the
switch side.
Those things aside put the rest
on the RCD half of the board.As a personal recommendation, I
was working on a burger machine in a McDonald’s restaurant
and I had dropped a screw from the lid inside the control
panel into the workings and with out a thought carefully
attempted to lift it out. My finger touched a live
connection, (don’t tell anyone from the Electrical
Contractors Association I was working on a live piece of
equipment!!) and before I could think Oh no! I’m going to
get a shock, the power had switched off.They are brilliant. Protect your
house, your elderly wiring if that is what you have, and
also your family with one.
One more comment.
Make sure if you are having your
consumer unit upgraded or your house rewired, that the
electrician who is doing the job is giving you the chance to
have the split board It is a very small amount of money
between the cheapest and the best but some guys will try to
squeeze the last few pounds out of the job so beware!
ACR Electrical
118 Brock Street,
North
Queensferry,
KY11 1JD
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