Cost to replace circuit breaker fuse box - advice

[mcgin85]

Hi,

I'm hoping to get a bit of advice, I am clueless with this sort of thing. I have an electrical shower running from a fuse box that has circuit breakers. Other the the shower, other things that run from the same box are the amercer and an electrical fire.
Last week when using the shower the fuse blew, I replaced it with a new 30amp fuse and all worked well again. This morning the shower went again and this time the breaker for the shower was really really warm and there was a burning smell.
I have an electrician coming out to have a look this afternoon and he mentions that the box may have to be replaced but he will have to have a look 1st. I don't expect that to be cheap so I'm simply trying to see roughly how much something like that would cost to ensure I don't get over charged. Also do you think it sounds like the box would have to be replaced?
To describe the box, it has 6 breakers in it. 5x 15 amp and 1x30amp (the shower) only 3 of the breakers are in use.

Any help would be much appreciated

Martin

 

[Octopus]

Just make sure that the price he is quoting includes a full test of the circuits and that he will give you an EIC with his invoice.

 

[driverman]

If loose, could cause burning. Overloading could cause burning also. You stated it was 30 amp fuse and later referred to it as a breaker, what size is the shower?

 

[tony mc]

Try and upload a picture of the consumer unit please if possible !

 

[the pict]

Mmmm £45 quid for a "fuse" and maybe it,ll need a new CU, More likely a new CU, shower cable upgrade, DP Isolator,plus all the usuall stuff you find on a CU change, thats why we spend at least 3 hours testing various circuits around the house to give us a "feel" for the job,
Pict

 

[paul_h]

Nice to see everyone sticking up for the spark, at the end of the day the op doesnt no polarity from insulation resistance. If the op doesn't believe the spark is upto the job ( which there is absolutely no grounds for ) then they should get someone else in and stop undermining the guy and wasting his time. Everyone seems very quick to stick the boot in.

 

[telectrix]

sounds like it's an old wylex CU with the fuses replaced by push-in MCBs, coupled with the shower being too heavy a load for the 30A MCB, thus causing overheating of the MCB connections. also, i'd bet a tenner on there being no RCD protection, so my advice would be a test of the complete installation, followed by a CU upgrade.

 

[thomas-1981]

coupled with the shower being too heavy a load for the 30A MCB, thus causing overheating of the MCB connections

Your right and all the guy is going to do is replace the mcb to put the (probably under rated) cable under more stress until it ''goes again''.

 

[Guitarist]

Nice to see everyone sticking up for the spark, at the end of the day the op doesnt no polarity from insulation resistance. If the op doesn't believe the spark is upto the job ( which there is absolutely no grounds for ) then they should get someone else in and stop undermining the guy and wasting his time. Everyone seems very quick to stick the boot in.

My thoughts exactly. Here we are moaning about the state of the trade, only to start telling a householder that he may be getting bad advice! To the OP, get a few quotes if you are unhappy, but please don't come on here asking us to comment on a job which none of us have seen. These kinds of threads are doing more harm than good.

 

[Spoon]

So if the OP is telling the truth, then are you two saying that what you would have just swapped the breaker and not done any testing?
I thought that this forum was for getting advice and helping people. Again, if the OP is telling the truth then we are giving him some good advice.

 

[Guitarist]

So if the OP is telling the truth, then are you two saying that what you would have just swapped the breaker and not done any testing?
I thought that this forum was for getting advice and helping people. Again, if the OP is telling the truth then we are giving him some good advice.

He's hired an electrician to give him advice though, hasn't he?

 

[Spoon]

We dont always get good advice of people who we hire, in any trade. In the past I have had people give me advice to find that there was a better option.

 

[Engineer54]

Trouble is, that we seem to always forget that there are a lot of electrical trainee and 17 day whizz kids out there pretending to be electricians. Are we going to start calling them electricians now??

It has got to be a real minefield out there now, for customers/clients to know if they have hired a qualified real electrician, or someone that was stacking shelves at Tesco's, a few weeks to a few months ago!!

 

[Silly Sausage]

Trouble is, that we seem to always forget that there are a lot of electrical trainee and 17 day whizz kids out there pretending to be electricians. Are we going to start calling them electricians now??

It has got to be a real minefield out there now, for customers/clients to know if they have hired a qualified real electrician, or someone that was stacking shelves at Tesco's, a few weeks to a few months ago!!

If anyone is going to hire an Electrician these days, it might be wise to ask to see their CV! :smilielol5:

 

[Engineer54]

If anyone is going to hire an Electrician these days, it might be wise to ask to see their CV! :smilielol5:

Dunno about that, but i'd certainly be asking a few pertinent questions before i'd let anyone start pulling my electrics apart, or taking advice from them!! These part Pee scheme providers have a lot to answer for, they really DO!! Especially as they were originally created to verify competency of domestic electricians, which they have clearly failed. If anything the standard and competence has fallen dramatically since their inception....

 

[Guitarist]

Dunno about that, but i'd certainly be asking a few pertinent questions before i'd let anyone start pulling my electrics apart, or taking advice from them!! These part Pee scheme providers have a lot to answer for, they really DO!! Especially as they were originally created to verify competency of domestic electricians, which they have clearly failed. If anything the standard and competence has fallen dramatically since their inception....

Have to agree with you there. Many are now told that they are "approved" which makes them think they are capable of anything electrical. My wife and I have come to the conclusion that the reason many are so complacent, is simply that they haven't seen what happens when things go wrong, the way we were forced to as apprentices.