Every house must have a modern electrical fuseboard installed. With the UK it is referred to as an RCD unit or Residual Current Device. It protects your complete electrical system against any electrical faults such as an overload. The fuseboard usually consists of a mains lever, circuit breakers and several fuses. Every circuit breaker or fuse matches up to a certain area of electrical wiring inside your house.

As an electrical fault occurs the circuit breaker would without human intervention shut off or 'trip'. In an old fashioned fuseboard the fuse will 'blow'. The electricity source to that particular piece of your house would be cut off, this prevents fires breaking out which is due to electrical overload. The disadvantage of the fusebox over a circuit breaker is that when a fuse blows, it needs to be changed, but each time a circuit breaker trips, you just have to reset it by way of the flip of a lever. Changing a fuse in an old fashioned fuse board is what we'll be writing about here.

Not surprisingly, safety is crucial thing to think about when changing or altering anything in your electrical system. Turn off the mains switch at the board prior to changing a fuse. Switch off the light and unplug any appliances that are supplied by that particular fuse. Every time, when you are changing a fuse, ensure to replace it with the exact rating. A fuse with a higher rating will permit too much electricity to run through the circuit and that may cause a fire due to an overload.

In cases where a fuse keeps blowing, get a professional electrician in. Perhaps it is time to replace your switchboard with an up to date RCD unit. Fuseboards are usually labeled to help you see which fuse guards which part of the house. However, in case your fuseboard doesn't have any labeling, have an electrician label it for you the next time he is at your house. This information will certainly help it become less difficult for yourself in finding a blown fuse the next time it takes place.

Changing a blown fuse is quite straight forward. Follow these guidelines when changing fuses:

1. Turn off the master switch on your switchboard.

2. Turn off all of the lights and unplug any devices in the affected section.

3. Check the labels in your switchboard. Take out the particular fuse that corresponds to the region in your house that ran out of power.

4. If the switchboard doesn't have any labelling or if you have difficulty in pinpointing the blown fuse, you will need to pull out and check every fuse until you find the blown one.

5. The blown fuse will be rather obvious because the wires inside will certainly have seperated when they burned out.

6. Make sure your fuse is the correct rating. You will ordinarily see the rating printed on the fuse itself. Ratings of lighting circuits range from 5 amps to 10 amps, 10 amps to 15 amps are for socket outlets, and ratings that are above 15 amps are for power hungry appliances like cookers.

7. Replace the fuse and turn the main switch on.

8. Test all the lights and appliances in the affected area of your home.

Finally, Congradulate yourself, you have successfully changed your fuse.