1960s Fuse Box Replaced with an 18th Edition RCBO Consumer Unit — Hattersley
Consumer unit upgrade in Hattersley: an original 1960s fuse box swapped for a modern 18th Edition board with individual RCBOs and a surge protection device (SPD), then fully tested, certified and labelled.
What we did on this Hattersley job
The detail behind the project — what the client needed, how we approached it, and what was specified for the future.
A homeowner in Hattersley, Tameside, was still running the property off its original 1960s fuse box — the kind of ageing metal-clad switchfuse you still find in plenty of older homes around the area. Boards of that era predate every modern safety standard: no RCD protection, rewireable fuse carriers rather than circuit breakers, and no surge protection. We replaced it with a modern 18th Edition consumer unit, then tested and certified the installation before handing it back.
The board we fitted is a fully RCBO unit. An RCBO combines an MCB (which trips on overload or short circuit) and an RCD (which trips on an earth fault — the type of fault that protects against electric shock) into a single device per circuit. The advantage over an older split-load board is that each circuit is protected independently — so if one circuit develops a fault, only that circuit trips, rather than half the house going dark. Lighting, sockets, cooker, shower: each sits on its own RCBO, each isolatable on its own.
We also fitted an SPD — a surge protection device. Under the 18th Edition wiring regulations (BS 7671), surge protection is now the default recommendation for most domestic installations. The SPD sits at the head of the board and clamps transient voltage spikes — from nearby lightning strikes, grid switching, or faults on the network — before they reach and damage sensitive electronics like TVs, computers, boilers, and EV chargers. On the old fuse box there was no such protection at all.
With the new board in, every circuit was fully tested — continuity, insulation resistance, earth fault loop impedance and RCD trip times all measured and recorded against BS 7671 — and the installation certified, with the inspection and next-inspection dates labelled on the unit itself. This is bread-and-butter safety work we carry out across Hattersley, Hyde, Mottram and the wider Tameside area. If your home still has an old fuse box, a rewireable board, or anything without RCD protection, get in touch — a consumer unit upgrade is one of the single most worthwhile safety improvements you can make.