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My Consumer Unit Secrets 🤫 How to Install a Consumer Unit/Fuse Box in 2026

Artisan Electrics

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My Consumer Unit Secrets 🤫 How to Install a Consumer Unit/Fuse Box in 2026

Changing a consumer unit is one of the most important electrical upgrades you can make — every circuit in your home runs through it. In this video, we show step by step how a consumer unit should be replaced properly, following current UK regulations and best practice.

This is a full consumer unit upgrade, from safe isolation and removal of the old board, through to installing a modern metal consumer unit with RCBOs and surge protection, dressing cables neatly, torquing terminals correctly, and carrying out full electrical testing.

⚠️ Important: This video is not a DIY guide. Replacing a consumer unit must be carried out by a qualified electrician who can certify the work and issue the correct paperwork.
However, this video is ideal for trainee and apprentice electricians or Qualified electricians looking to improve their neatness and workflow.

Don't forget to subscribe 📺 for more expert content from Artisan Electrics and join our community of passionate electricians. ⚡

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𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐬 & 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐬

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𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐬:
02:00 – Why This Board Needs Replacing
04:00 – Preparing the Workspace Properly
06:00 – Tools Needed for a Board Change
08:30 – Safe Power-Down & Isolation
11:00 – Understanding the Meter & Isolator
14:00 – Proving Dead & Safe Isolation Procedure
17:00 – Stripping Out the Old Consumer Unit
20:00 – Why Photos & Labelling Matter
23:00 – Choosing the New Consumer Unit
26:00 – RCBOs, SPD & Future-Proofing Explained
29:00 – Positioning & Fixing the New Board
32:00 – Replacing Main Tails Correctly
35:00 – Using Torque Screwdrivers Properly
38:00 – Installing Surge Protection Devices
41:00 – Dressing Cables for a Neat Finish
44:00 – Straightening & Preparing Conductors
47:00 – Terminating Circuits Neatly
50:00 – Ring Circuits & Cable Management
53:00 – Earth Sleeving & Bonding Tips
56:00 – Installing the Busbar Correctly
59:00 – Electrical Testing Explained
1:02:00 – RCD & RCBO Testing
1:05:00 – Final Labels, Certification & Results

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𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐔𝐬
Have questions or need media inquiries? Get in touch: contact@artisanmotion.com

Disclaimer
⚠️ This video is for entertainment purposes only. Do not attempt to recreate any of the actions or work shown. Always hire a qualified professional for electrical tasks.

#SparkyLife #ElectricianLife #Artisanelectrics

20 Comments

@artisanelectrics Creator 8 months ago Pinned

⚠ Important: This video is not a DIY guide. Replacing a consumer unit must be carried out by a qualified electrician who can certify the work and issue the correct paperwork.
However, this video is ideal for trainee and apprentice electricians or Qualified electricians looking to improve their neatness and workflow.

@pieeater_1983 7 months ago

29:30 It’s a Naval term, a Brass Monkey is a rack for cannon balls on old warships. When the weather turned really cold the rack was contract so much the cannon balls pop off hence the phrase “freeze the balls off a Brass Monkey”

@MP-cd5qc 7 months ago

The regulations are not retrospective. This consumer unit does not NEED changing!

@snowysimon 7 months ago

DIN stands for Deutsches Institut für Normung (German Institute for Standardization).
In the context of electrical equipment, a DIN rail is a standardized metal rail used for mounting circuit breakers, terminal blocks, industrial control equipment, and other electrical components inside equipment racks and enclosures. The most common type is the 35mm top-hat rail (DIN 46277-3, now EN 60715), which has that distinctive omega-shaped cross-section.
You’ll also encounter DIN in other electrical contexts like DIN connectors (those circular multi-pin plugs common on older audio equipment and MIDI devices) and various cable/component standards.

@Suedenim1999 2 months ago

Little suprised that in your safe isolation, you didn't lock off the switch in meter box.

@SteveMaggs 7 months ago

Didn’t see you put any grommets in the stand off knock outs

@brianoceallaigh8714 7 months ago

Main isolator in meter cabinet should be locked out!

@Fgcbear15 4 months ago

As a controls engineer in the US, Im fascinated and in love with UK consumer units.

@Spark_230V 7 months ago

YouTube spark videos are the only place where you can watch someone fit a consumer unit and immediately get corrected by:
– A historian
– A German linguist
– A safety inspector
– A man obsessed with grommets
– And someone who thinks the tails are 4 mm too enthusiastic.”

This comment section has more experts than the actual IET committee.

@GuyDawson 7 months ago

Have you considered taking landscape format photos of the consumer units?

@Kai.heanre 7 months ago

No grommets on the CU stand off knockout entry??

@noddynomates 5 months ago

Higher loads on the busbar nearer the main switch theoretically reduces heat. That was the best practise instructed by some manufacturers.

@johnscott6963 2 months ago

I'm sorry I'm not having that! I've just retired after 50yrs as a decorator. Never, ever, ever did I work beside a tidy sparkie!
😂

@TheFatstrat79 7 months ago

brass monkeys refers to a brass rack (called the monkey) that contains canon balls that contracts in cold weather used by the British Navy

@nialldaly7108 7 months ago (edited)

That looks like a neat Unit. I live in a house built in 1983/84 and there is a Hager 2 row unit in it. The first row is the Non ELCB CCT's and has 2 RCBO X 10A for lights, 1 X 20A for the Immersion, 1 X 32 A for the double Oven Cooker of same age, and 1 X 32A for water Pump for Submersible Pump for the well and finally the Traffo for the Door Bell.
Bottom Row, 1 X 63A main Fuse, ELCB (replaced by an RCCB), 1 X 32A outhouse, 1 X 20A Kitchen Sockets 1, 1 X 20A Kitchen Sockets 2, 1X 20A sockets Living and Siting room Sockets, 1 X 20A bedroom and hallway sockets ). As the wiring in the main unit was getting a little cramped even though the Unit was big enough, we added a smaller separate Unit for the mobility bathroom when converted and that has the Lights/Fans 10A, Bathroom Heater 20A 30mA double RCBO's and the Shower RCCB 43A. The outhouses also have mini units consisting of breakers for lights and Sockets through an ELCB, Not sure if they were changed to RCCB. The Pump House also has MCB's for the Sockets, Light, Water Pump and the Firebird Boiler, all fed from the Well 32A breaker. At 55:00 hellermann (now HellermannTyton) also do cable numbers, either Open ended clip on or better, expandable ones which have to be applied before termination. Hellermann also do wire sleeves all most normal colours.

@tullgutten 7 months ago

As a DIY and certified EV mechanic when doing large cables i always put the cable in, tighten the connector lightly, wiggle the cable to let it settle in and then tighten to spec.

Having a neat breaker panel is very nice for future fault finding where everything is clear and easy to follow.

And i definitely say USE correct torque!
One of the main fire causes in my country is from loose electrical connections.

Not long ago i retightened all breakers in my box an several of them was very loose and after having electricians over to do some work i always double check and never had anything torqued properly just one day later 😅

I understand thet out of habit the older people doesn't want to use torque tools but it's a cheap insurance for not to over tighten or under tighten.

I connected up some ceramic DC HV fuses for my PV and this was before getting a torque driver i was afraid of having a loose connection, tightened it untill the whole fuse holder split and fell apart 😂 had to get a new one and ordered a better one as well.

Those fuses are only if lightning strikes it should blow before anything else or if the inverter fails in an freak way and sends power backwards to the panels.

I'm also thinking about switching to be an electrician instead of mechanic

@WaheedM-f1c 2 months ago

Great video, very informative, thanks Jordan.

@AngusAbbott-qf8xm 7 months ago

I like the stand off bracket , simple but effective

@GreenPowerNC 7 months ago

Don’t normally comment on videos, so let the flaming begin

I live in eastern North Carolina USA, where we are the graveyard of the Atlantic I think there’s over 5000 shipwrecks off the coast our and in the sounds. several of which I’ve personally dove (scuba while in college)

On a cannonball rack the first ball that was not used (fired) was often brass because it would not freeze to the racks (wood or metal) it was used to hold back the cannon balls, that is also where the term brass balls came from as well. brass was expensive so they didn’t shoot it but often times it would be set aside in a holder to not roll around the deck in battle. the whole rack is called the brass monkey often made out of mostly wood but designed to keep the fog mist and condensation off of the cannon balls to keep them from freezing to the rack itself, but if you had moisture on the balls and they didn’t fit inside the cannons, it also didn’t help you so basically the brass ball was there to take up the majority of the opening. Think of it like a door to the cupboard. This was mostly privateers in our local area. The most popularized one would be Blackbeard.

@1414141x 6 months ago

It amazes me that now the electrics can be so complex in new build houses that insalling electricians are not required to make a map of the property deliniating exactly where each cable run travels. Each cable should annotated regularly as well - so that when it is necessary to add too, alter or repair any electrical point in the house all the information is there for the electrician. This would help save time and help prevent mistakes.