Fuseboxes

Resetting the fuse board

We would advise that electrical faults within your property are repaired by a professional electrician. However there are a few things worth checking before reporting problems through the system.

The first thing to do is find your main fuse box (or consumer unit), the location of this will be specified on your check in document. This is where the electricity in your house is controlled from, and it’s important that you know where to go and what to do if you need to turn off the mains electricity.

Loss of electric light or power

Your fuse box, or consumer unit, will either have fuses or trip switches. To re-set the trip switch open the cover on the consumer unit to see which switches have tripped to the OFF position. Put them back to the ON position. If tripping occurs again, it is probably being caused by a faulty appliance. You need to identify which circuit is affected and which appliance on that circuit is causing the problem.

Checking for faulty appliances

Go around the house noting which set of lights or sockets are not working. Unplug all appliances on that problem circuit and switch off any immersion heaters (if you have one). Switch the tripped switch to the ON position and plug in the appliances one by one until the trip goes again. Leave that appliance unplugged, and have it repaired by a qualified electrician.

Common causes:

• Overloaded circuit
• Too many appliances being used at the same time
• A faulty or misused appliance
• Faulty immersion heaters
• Faulty connections on leads to appliances e.g. televisions or stereos etc.
• Light bulbs blowing