Fuse Holder Melted In Fuse Box

Can someone please help explain why this may have happened.  My econ 7 storage heater stopped working, when I opened up the fuse box  I saw the entire fuse housing and part of the consumer unit melted.  This is an old school main board that uses fuses that have wires that you screw in. I will now have to replace the whole board now as you can see its severely damaged. My question is, if the storage heater was drawing a higher load of electricity due to some problem, why didnt the fuse wire just pop to cut of supply of electricity like its suppose to ? Would really appreciate your advice please

probably a loose connection. the fuse is designed to detect overload / fault currents, not this

to be fair, its due a change anyway, and probably hasnt had any periodic inspections as required by wiring regulations , which would often have found issues like this before they become an problem like that

It's not a big job to change that, the challenge will be finding a replacement small enough to fit the space.

Andy™ said:

probably a loose connection. the fuse is designed to detect overload / fault currents, not this

to be fair, its due a change anyway, and probably hasnt had any periodic inspections as required by wiring regulations , which would often have found issues like this before they become an problem like that

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Thx for the information, when you say a loose connection , do you mean a loose connection on the board where the fuse is housed ?

ProDave said:

It's not a big job to change that, the challenge will be finding a replacement small enough to fit the space.

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I am going to replace the economy 7 consumer unit thats damaged and while I am at it replace the normal non-economy 7 unit as well for safe measure.  Was thinking of maybe combining them both into one consumer unit , not sure if they are sold like that or is it better just to buy to separate units ?

Ochu said:

I am going to replace the economy 7 consumer unit thats damaged and while I am at it replace the normal non-economy 7 unit as well for safe measure.  Was thinking of maybe combining them both into one consumer unit , not sure if they are sold like that or is it better just to buy to separate units ?

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Are you a spark?

Murdoch said:

Are you a spark?

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Repeating Murdo,s question  .  You can buy a combined board  but  if untrained you could find yourself in the brown stuff .   I guess you're not a Spark  as you didn't know you had a loose connection  or a badly fitting fuse . fuse  wire  etc .  

Murdoch said:

Are you a spark?

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No I am not

Evans Electric said:

Repeating Murdo,s question  .  You can buy a combined board  but  if untrained you could find yourself in the brown stuff .   I guess you're not a Spark  as you didn't know you had a loose connection  or a badly fitting fuse . fuse  wire  etc .  

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I have a friend who works with a spark so he can most probably do it

OK   but working with a spark  & being a Spark  are not really the same thing .      Many pitfalls are looming ....sorry to be negative  .    But  I'd recommend replace the boards  too.

Evans Electric said:

OK   but working with a spark  & being a Spark  are not really the same thing .      Many pitfalls are looming ....sorry to be negative  .    But  I'd recommend replace the boards  too.

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Sorry, what I meant was my friend will ask the spark to do it 

Should be fine then  . 

dependng upon where the property is the work may well be notifiable to Building control, it will also need vertification/ certification

just saying

funny how the old wooden board didn't catch fire....