A safe and efficiently functioning fuse box is essential for all Edinburgh homeowners but do you know what you need to look out for to ensure your fuse box is working as it should be? That’s where our friendly, expert electrician team can help. Here we can outline some basic fusebox knowledge and what you need to do in an emergency, prior of course to contacting your local, Edinburgh electrician.
The fusebox in your Edinburgh home, also sometimes known as a consumer unit should be easy to find. This is the hub of your property’s electrical system and where your home’s electricity supply is both distributed and controlled.
You should familiarise yourself with your fuse box location as should there ever be an emergency you will need to turn off your electricity supply and call your local Edinburgh electrician immediately. Your fuse box will contain three main elements, fuses and / or circuit breakers, residual current devices and your main supply switch.
In the event of an emergency, your DC Electrical Edinburgh electrician may ask you to turn off your electricity supply. This can be done via the main switch. If you have electric storage heaters for instance, then it may be possible that you have more than one mains switch in a separate fuse. If you are ever in doubt, please ask one of our expert Edinburgh electricians & they will be only too happy to help.
Residual Current Devices (commonly abbreviated to RCD’s) are the switches which enable you to trip a specific circuit under dangerous conditions and immediately disconnect the electricity. For this reason it’s best to familiarise yourself with the location of these as an extra emergency safety precaution.
Circuit breakers will also be found in the fusebox of your Edinburgh property and these are automatic protection devices which are located in the fusebox and switch off a circuit if a fault is detected. Circuit breakers are usually similar in size to fuses but target a more precise location. When these ‘trip’ you can in most circumstances just reset the switch but make sure you correct the fault first. Fuses can in some cases be found in place of circuit breakers. Rewirable fuses are constructed with a special piece of fuse wire which runs between two screws. When an overloaded current or fault then flows through the fuse wire it will become hot and the wire will melt. This melted wire will then break the circuit by disconnecting the faulty wire and keeping you safe
It’s great to have some basic working knowledge regarding your fuse box for emergency situations but if you are ever in doubt at all or need emergency help we always have a member of our Edinburgh electrician team member on call, ready to come and help you when you need it most.
We strive to be Edinburgh’s number one electrician firm and pride ourselves on not only being fast, professional and efficient but also friendly and helpful too. Just another reason to choose Team DC Electrical for all your electrical requirements, get in touch today as we are always here when you need us.
