old fashioned fuse box

Hi All,

first, I have to say I am a total novice. I know nothing about electricity.

I live in an older house that has a lot of work done, and various bits changed in the electrical cupboard, but it has never been rewired.

My upstairs lights blew a few days ago. they went as i switched the bedroom light on, so I am guessing that is what blew them.

This has happened once before, and an electrician charged £75 to fix the fuse.

This question is a bit odd. My neighbour can fix the fuse for me, but he CANNOT LOCATE THE FUSEBOX.

There are 2 fuseboxes. Once is a pushy out type you can see. And another, old fashioned wired type.

Is it going to be in the big grey metal box with the red switch on please?

I have a photo, can I upload it here please?

I am lost.

Any help appreciated.

Karen

Nobody can tell you which fuse box the lighting circuit is going to be , but it will be the one with a blown fuse.

If you are paying an electrician £75 a time to replace a fuse, then he's ripping you off imho. How long was he in the house for? was it just replacing a fuse or did he spend time finding and fixing the fault that caused it to blow?

Perhaps you are better off putting your next £75 towards a new consumer unit (which will also mean a lot of testing and probably some remedial repairs to make it acceptable)

If you are lucky, have a look at the inside of the cover that you unscrew to gain access to the fuses. You might be lucky and find someone has labelled which fuse does what.  To narrow it down a bit, lighting circuits are usually the white 5A fuses (though not always)

You can upload your pic to a  picture site and then link from here. Once you have posted a few more times you will be able to upload directly.

cheers, Paul

A further thought. If your fuse box with fuses has all blue 15A fuses and nothing else, then it is most probably for off peak storage heaters and may or may not still be in use. If so the lights will be fed from the other box.

mizzle2 said:

Hi All,

first, I have to say I am a total novice. I know nothing about electricity.

I live in an older house that has a lot of work done, and various bits changed in the electrical cupboard, but it has never been rewired.

My upstairs lights blew a few days ago. they went as i switched the bedroom light on, so I am guessing that is what blew them.

This has happened once before, and an electrician charged £75 to fix the fuse.

This question is a bit odd. My neighbour can fix the fuse for me, but he CANNOT LOCATE THE FUSEBOX.

There are 2 fuseboxes. Once is a pushy out type you can see. And another, old fashioned wired type.

Is it going to be in the big grey metal box with the red switch on please?

I have a photo, can I upload it here please?

I am lost.

Any help appreciated.

Karen

Click to expand...

Don't use cheap light bulbs!

Something like this maybe?

Hiya, thanks very much for the answers guys!

I got another neighbour in, and he identified the fuse box as a grey metal box with a big red switch on it.

he put the electricity off, and unscrewed the box, and the fuses looked like the one above, and he was able to fit it. YAY!!

But yes, I need to buy better light bulbs I think.

Thank you SO much anyway for the replies!!

hope he didnt stick a bit of 15 or 30a fuse wre in, because thats all he had and its all the same stuff anyway, isnt it?

Or a bit of 2.5

5a fusewire is very thin

10A looks very much like 5A apparently  :innocent

Pubs in Ireland used to depend on fuse size as replacement substitute,

Fag packet foil for 5a , beer bottle foil for 15a , and a bit of foil of some 'posh' whiskey or wine for 30a ,

A single strand out of 16mm equals 100A

If you work with Eastern Europeans then an M6 roofing bolt cut down equals 13 amps, at least that's what they like to bang in plug tops.