EICR - Old Rewireable Fuse boards are these acceptable?

The open backed Wylex consumer units with a wooden frame had the paxolin back offered to fully enclose it to prevent fire spread. Fire could originate due to a bad joint inside the fuse box. The fuse boxes were o.k. if mounted on brick or a plastered wall, but it was feared that fire could spread if the fuse box was mounted on say wood or another combustible material. It also offered a better electrical insulation if the fuse box was mounted on a metal sheet. It was the Amendment 3 requirement of its day.


The B.S. 3036 fuse wire type carriers had a fusing factor of two, and offered "course excess current protection" The 5 Amp fuse wire was the most likely to blow when a filament lamp failed and shorted internally. The fuse wire being very thin ruptured virtually instantly in that case, and modest amounts of hot copper were produced in the bang, mostly enclosed within the fuse carrier assembly. I can not see any way that the products of a fuse wire rupturing could reach the insides of the fuse box and pose a risk.


I have come across old Wylex fuse boxes where the 15 Amp and 30 Amp fuse wire has never blown from installation in the 60s or 70s.


The biggest danger with rewirable fuses is that of somebody replacing the fuse wire with the wrong larger size of other bit of wire.


Fitting Wylex plug in M.C.B.s or G.E. Mini trip M.C.B.s offers better protection as it offers " "Close excess current protection, having a fusing factor of nearer 1.5 rather than 2)


Z.

The open backed Wylex consumer units with a wooden frame had the paxolin back offered to fully enclose it to prevent fire spread. Fire could originate due to a bad joint inside the fuse box. The fuse boxes were o.k. if mounted on brick or a plastered wall, but it was feared that fire could spread if the fuse box was mounted on say wood or another combustible material. It also offered a better electrical insulation if the fuse box was mounted on a metal sheet. It was the Amendment 3 requirement of its day.


The B.S. 3036 fuse wire type carriers had a fusing factor of two, and offered "course excess current protection" The 5 Amp fuse wire was the most likely to blow when a filament lamp failed and shorted internally. The fuse wire being very thin ruptured virtually instantly in that case, and modest amounts of hot copper were produced in the bang, mostly enclosed within the fuse carrier assembly. I can not see any way that the products of a fuse wire rupturing could reach the insides of the fuse box and pose a risk.


I have come across old Wylex fuse boxes where the 15 Amp and 30 Amp fuse wire has never blown from installation in the 60s or 70s.


The biggest danger with rewirable fuses is that of somebody replacing the fuse wire with the wrong larger size of other bit of wire.


Fitting Wylex plug in M.C.B.s or G.E. Mini trip M.C.B.s offers better protection as it offers " "Close excess current protection, having a fusing factor of nearer 1.5 rather than 2)


Z.