Consumer Unit & Fuse Box Upgrades in Steyning, Horsham & Henfield

Many houses in Steyning and across the Horsham district still rely on outdated fuse boards that were never designed for the demands of modern living. If your current unit has a wooden back, uses rewireable fuses, or lacks a "test" button, it likely falls short of today’s safety standards. Sussex Brown Sparks helps homeowners move away from old, risky technology by installing modern consumer units. These units provide much better protection against electric shocks and significantly reduce the risk of electrical fires by cutting power the moment a fault is detected.

You should consider an upgrade if you still have an old-style board with rewireable fuse wire or if the casing is made of wood or plastic. Another sign is a lack of RCD protection—the "test" button that helps prevent electric shocks. If you are planning a kitchen refit, an extension, or installing an EV charger, a modern RCBO board is usually required to handle the new loads safely.

In older boards, one fault could trip half the circuits in your house. An RCBO board gives each circuit its own dedicated protection. This means a fault in your garden shed won't turn off your fridge or your lights. It makes fault finding much simpler and keeps your home functional while you wait for a repair.

Under the latest 18th Edition BS 7671 rules, surge protection is now a standard requirement for most domestic installations. It protects your expensive appliances from "overvoltages" caused by lightning strikes or switching issues on the grid. Given the cost of modern electronics, it is a sensible investment for any home in the Steyning area.

Most upgrades are completed within a single day. The process involves more than just swapping the box; we spend a significant amount of time testing your existing wiring to make sure it is safe to connect to the new unit. We will need to turn the power off while we work, but we always aim to get your electricity back on as quickly as possible.

Yes. Because a fuse box upgrade is notifiable work under Part P of the Building Regulations, we provide an Electrical Installation Certificate and notify the local authority on your behalf. You will receive a compliance certificate through the post, which you should keep in a safe place with your property records.

For your new consumer unit to work correctly, your home must have a solid connection to earth. We check that your gas and water pipes are correctly bonded with 10mm² copper cabling. In many older Steyning cottages, these safety connections are either missing or undersized and need to be brought up to modern standards during the upgrade.