Fuse Board Upgradesin Wimbledon

The fuse board, or consumer unit, is where the electricity supply is divided into circuits: one for sockets, another for lights, another for the cooker, and so on. Each circuit has a protective device that cuts the power if something goes wrong, such as an overload or a fault.

In an older board that device is often a fuse wire in a holder, which you rewire by hand after it blows. A modern consumer unit uses circuit breakers instead, and adds protection against earth faults. That extra layer is the main reason an upgrade matters, and it is why an old board is worth checking even when the lights come on as normal.

Much of Wimbledon Village and the streets around the Common is large Victorian and Edwardian housing, and South Wimbledon is mostly Victorian terraces. Boards in older houses are often the first thing that gets attention, because they are the part of the installation that gets replaced least often, and the one place where a change makes a real difference to protection.

On the Raynes Park side, where 1930s semis are common, an original or early replacement board can still be in use. Age alone does not decide anything. We look at the board, the type of protection it has and the state of the circuits behind it.

A new board is often fitted together with other work, because it saves visiting twice. If you are planning any of the following, mention it when we speak:

The board has to cope with what you add to it, so it makes sense to plan the two together. If a rewire is being considered as well, our house rewire page for Wimbledon explains that side.