Can an RCD be fitted to an old fuse box?

As time moves on, so does technology and safety standards. If you have an old fuse box, it will only trip when overloaded, rather than protecting you against electric shocks or other fault conditions.

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As time moves on, so does technology and safety standards. If you have an old fuse box, it will only trip when overloaded, rather than protecting you against electric shocks or other fault conditions. This is because it won’t have 30ma RCDs fitted like a new fuse box would.

So, can an RCD be fitted to an old fuse box?

Yes, it can. RCDs are sensitive circuit breakers that trip quickly in fault conditions. You can add them to your circuits retrospectively.

The cheapest way of doing this would likely be to fit the RCD to the meter tails between the meter and the fuse box. You would lose your electricity supply if there was an earth fault, but at least you would be safe.

That said, even though it’s possible to fit separate RCDs to the circuit, if you’re altering more than one circuit, it would usually be more cost-effective update the fuse board to a Dual RCD.

Do I need to upgrade my old fuse box?

If you have an old fuse box that only trips when it’s overloaded, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to upgrade or replace it. After all, it will hopefully have been correctly fitted to the standard at the time.

Instead, you only actually need to upgrade your fuse box if an electrician inspects it and spots problems with it related to the British Safety Standards.

Having said that, although it might not be legally necessary to add RCDs or to upgrade an old fuse box, it would certainly be safer. With a new fuse box, all current mainboards will be equipped with an RCD or individual RCBOs. So, you’ll know that you and everyone in the home is protected from electric shocks.

Find an electrician to upgrade your fuse box

If you’re looking to upgrade your fuse box – or replace it entirely – a qualified electrician will be able to help.

Not only will they be able to ensure your fuse box is safe for you and your family, but they’ll also be able to advise you on the most cost-effective solution for achieving this.

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