With energy prices soaring and climate awareness at an all-time high, improving your home’s energy efficiency is a must. This can involve turning plug sockets off when they’re not in use, turning to renewable energy, and upgrading your fuse board.

A fuse board upgrade can revolutionise the distribution of electricity around your home, improving efficiency and reducing your monthly bills. In this post, we’ll delve into the reasons why you should be ditching your old fuse board in favour of a brand new consumer unit.

How can a fuse board upgrade improve energy efficiency?

Switching from an old fuse board to a new consumer unit can do wonders for your home’s energy efficiency. From better electricity distribution to less wastage, installing a new consumer unit can help you shave off precious pounds on your monthly electricity bills.

Better distribution of electricity

Compared to old fuse boards, modern consumer units distribute electricity with far greater efficiency. Consumer units do a far better job at ensuring the correct amount of power is distributed to the circuits, minimising electricity wastage.

Electricity wastage is a huge problem in British households, with the Energy Advice Helpline suggesting that 20% of all energy consumption in the UK is wasted. This has a severely detrimental effect on energy bills.

Preventing circuit damage

Consumer units don’t rely on traditional, single-use fuses to trip the circuit in case of an overload. Instead, they can use a range of circuit breakers, including Residual Current Devices (RCDs) and Miniature Circuit Breakers (MCBs).

These devices act much faster than regular fuses, tripping and cutting off power before an overload of electricity causes damage to the circuits.

Circuit damage, often in the form of faulty wires, malfunctioning circuit breakers, and overloaded circuits, is a major cause of energy wastage. Electricity will relentlessly leak from damaged circuits, contributing negatively to your monthly energy costs.

Coping with modern electronics

Electricity usage has changed dramatically in the last two decades, and traditional fuse boards have struggled to keep up. An inability to cope with increased electrical loads leads to electrical surges, which would usually be prevented by a consumer unit’s RCDs (Residual Current Devices).

This inevitably leads to more electricity wastage, lowering the energy efficiency of your home. As well as improving your energy efficiency, the RCDs in a consumer unit will lower the risk of house fires.

This inability to cope with modern appliances and gadgets won’t only put a strain on your energy bills, it will also be incredibly frustrating. You are likely to experience frequent blown fuses, which will need to be manually replaced. This won’t be an issue if you have a new consumer unit.

Smart technology

A lot of modern consumer units will contain devices that allow you to measure your energy usage. This will give you a clear indication of which area of your home uses the most energy.

With this information, you’ll be able to make amendments, lowering energy usage and increasing your home’s energy efficiency.

In fact, some consumer units will do a lot of this work for you. Some new consumer units can directly connect to thermostats and lighting systems. So, if you tend to use your thermostat from 6pm until 8pm, your consumer unit will optimise electricity distribution to the thermostat at this time.

Accommodating renewable energy and green technology

It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to integrate renewable energy sources, such as solar panels, into a fuse board setup. Solar panel systems require modern safety features, such as RCDs and MCBs, which aren’t present in older fuse boards.

Solar panels will also increase the electrical load on a fuse board system, which it’s unlikely to be able to cope with. This should be no issue for modern consumer units, many of which are built with renewable energy in mind.

Having solar panels installed on your home can save you hundreds, if not thousands of pounds on your energy bills each year. However, if you are yet to upgrade your fuse board, you won’t have access to this technology.

In addition to being able to accommodate renewable energy sources, consumer units will be able to cope with environmentally-friendly, cost-saving technology. For example, you would struggle to charge an electric car if you have an old fuse board. Old fuse boards will lack the electrical capacity and essential safety features required to do the job.

Other reasons to upgrade your fuse board

In addition to making your home more energy efficient, there are a handful of other reasons why you should consider a fuse board upgrade. These include:

• Safety: New consumer units have been fitted with the latest safety features, including modernised circuit breakers. These will act rapidly to prevent overloads as a result of an electrical fault. This greatly reduces the risk of house fires.

• Compliance with regulations: While it’s not illegal to use an old fuse board, it can cause homeowners major issues. Failing to meet the 18th Edition Wiring Regulations can make it difficult to sell your home or acquire home insurance. If you’re a landlord and haven’t upgraded the fuse board, you may face legal action.

• Practicality: As old fuse boards will struggle to cope with modern electrical loads, they will frequently trip. Old fuses are single-use and will need to be replaced each time if you want to continue using electricity. This is tedious, expensive, and impractical.

Simplify your fuse board upgrade with SparkPro Electrical

A fuse board upgrade won’t just improve energy efficiency in your home, it will also modernise your home and lower the risk of house fires. The best thing is, with SparkPro Electrical, the process of upgrading your fuse board is simple.

We have over 15 years of experience in domestic electrical services, including fuse board replacements, operating across Hammersmith and West London. Being NAPIT and Trust Mark accredited, you can count on our work being carried out to the highest standard.

Contact us today for more information about how we can upgrade your fuse board, or to get a free, no-obligation quote.