Why are existing Fuse Boards considered unsuitable these days? Is that the Government wish to support Tradesmen and so have created this and other jobs such as Health and Safety

fuse boads are considered unsuitable because they do not give you any protection against electric shock in the event of an earth fault, if any hand held equipment you are using developes an earth by the time the fuse blows you will be well dead.new consumer units fitted with 1 or more rcd"s give the best protection in earth fault conditions the rcd will trip within 40 mili seconds( faster than you can blink) saving your life ( or that of a family member) regards Terry.

old type csu do not have rcd protection and so therefore offer very poor protection against short circuit and earth faults. By the time a fuse wire has blown the circuit could be on fire. If you were receiving an electric shock to earth you would want the quickest form of disconnection, certainly not a piece of fuse wire. I have to agree though that the latest 17th edition does go to the extreme.

Existing fuse boards are not concidered unsuitable, far from it, there are new regulations out that state any new board has to be a RCD operated board. The regulations are not retrospective and do not apply to exhisting boards. Hope this helps

On the contrary all the government has done for us poor hard working sparkies is add another layer of red tape in the form of Part P. As for the fuse board old fuse boards are not always unsafe just because they dont have rcd prtection,under the 17th edition any cable buried in a wall less than 50mm must be protected by a 30mA rcd,circuits in bathrooms must be protected by a 30mA rcd,socket outlets need a 30mA rcd,notice a pattern forming yet?its called electrical safety. If you have an old fuseboard and it works fine it doesnt need changing unless you are having electrical work done,the new circuits you have installed must comply with the 17th edition. Depends how highly you value the safety of yourself and loved ones.Have a nice day.