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EICR - Old Rewireable Fuse boards are these acceptable?

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
Hi, 


I need verification that it is ok to keep old style Wylex rewireable fuse boards to pass the EICR. Initially the electrician said this was ok providing they have a cover for the fuses. However he has now changed his mind and saying they need to be replaced with a new consumer unit. Some of the homes do not have a cover on the fuse board and others have had the cover taken off so plug in mcb's can be accomodated. Is this still ok?
  • 0
    John Peckham:

    If fitted with fuses and the cover is missing then C2 and needs replacing.


    John, why do you consider the cover to be so important please? If there is an interlock which allows the cover to be removed only when the main switch is off, I can see the point. However, I envisage just a rather flimsy cover secured by a wee knurled screw. If that can be removed whilst the fuses are still live, and IP2X is maintained, why not C3?


    I might add that C3 hides a multitude of sins. I never felt inadequately protected when we had these fuse boxes when I was a small boy; but then again, I didn't feel inadequately protected before we has seatbelts.


  • 0
    If you want fairly compact three way consumer unit the cast aluminium BG IP rated units would be my recommendation.

    https://www.bgelectrical.uk/circuit-protection/consumer-units/enclosures


    You would get what you a consumer unit with a 30 mA RCD main switch and three MCBs for around forty quid.
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    Yes, these fuseboxes are in 1980's residential park homes. They were installed and certified by the manufacturer of the homes. They generally have wylex consumer unit with switch and rewireable fuses, 3 to 4 way. The incoming has RCD protection before tails go to the consumer unit. Some of the CU's do have hard wood back boxes. Main problem with replacing with more modern consumer unit is that the modern ones are less compact and won't fit in the available space and when they do the wiring has to be extended to reach both the neutral bar and the live feeds of the mcbs.
  • 0
    AJJewsbury:
    I believe that this situation is in a residential mobile home park.

    or perhaps in a brick shed housing the supply to them...?

      - Andy.


    "I need verification that it is ok to keep old style Wylex rewireable fuse boards to pass the EICR. Initially the electrician said this was ok providing they have a cover for the fuses. However he has now changed his mind and saying they need to be replaced with a new consumer unit. Some of the homes do not have a cover on the fuse board and others have had the cover taken off so plug in mcb's can be accomodated. Is this still ok?"


    Z.


  • 0
    I believe that this situation is in a residential mobile home park.

    or perhaps in a brick shed housing the supply to them...?

      - Andy.
  • 0
    The problem is as far as I can see, not that everybody would agree, would be the paradox of BS7671 verses the Building control regs where BS7671 is not retrospective as long as the inspector regards the installation to be safe according to the time is was installed and hence maintained and now the building control regs that expect that domestic properties to be designed and installed to the latest regulations, particularly for rental properties.

    I'm not sure there's any particular conflict between building regs and wiring regs. The requirement for rented homes to meet the 18th Ed comes from the 'Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020', not the building regs. Also the private rented regs don't specify the latest edition of the wirings regs - it specifically referenced BS 7671:2018 - so it's already out of date since we're already on AMD1.


    BS 7671 periodic inspections should be done by comparing to the edition of BS 7671 current at the time of the inspection - otherwise you'd have give different results to otherwise identical installations just because they were installed on different dates.


       - Andy.
  • 0
    I believe that this situation is in a residential mobile home park.


    Z.
  • 0
    If the Wylex


    CU is an old wooden open backed board with the rear Paxolin cover missing and mounted on a combustible surface then Code C2, so would need replacing.


    If fitted with fuses and the cover is missing then C2 and needs replacing.


    If a house or flat on the ground floor and no RCD protection on sockets C2 then C2 replace CU.


    If no supplementary bonding in the bathroom and no RCD protection on all bathroom circuits then C2 replace CU.


    No RCD on an electric shower C2.


    The following are C3 items in my view which is improvement recommended.


    No RCD on all sockets.

    No RCD on cables without protection in walls at a depth of less than 50mm.

    No RCD on lighting circuits.


    Why not upgrade the CU and installation to current safety standards which will cost less than a months rent?




  • 0
    The breaking capacity of the Wylex plug in MCBs were rated at 1.5kA and 3kA which may not be strong enough to withstand the possible fault currents relying on the service fuse to absorb the enrgy let through.

    That really shouldn't be a worry in domestics - since the CU will likely have a overall 16kA conditional rating anyway.

      - Andy.
  • 0
    There's nothing in principle wrong with BS 3036 fuses - they're still specifically listed as acceptable in today's regulations (along with the diameter of tinned copper fuse wire to use).


    On their own however they're likely to be lacking modern facilities - such as 30mA RCDs or perhaps SPDs. These however could be added as in separate enclosures if required.


    Lack of 30mA RCD additional protection is likely to be a C3 in most cases - but can be a C2 for things like sockets likely to feed equipment outdoors or for bathroom circuits together with a lack of supplementary bonding for instance.


    The lack of a cover over the fuse carries isn't ideal - they are after all only semi-enclosed and so arc products can be ejected from them if a fuse blows (hence the warning to switch off before handling fuses embossed into most of them) - but even then I probably wouldn't go for a C2 unless it was in a particularly flammable area. Where the fuse wire carriers have been replaced by plug-in MCBs I think it's less of an issue.


        - Andy.

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