Terry Fields wrote:
John Rumm wrote:

wrote:

Rewirable fuses are still fully compliant for new installation. You'd
derive very little safety benefit from adding MCBs. The reason the
fuses didnt pop is that any trip device takes a cvertain amount of i
times t to blow, and the fault, while it may have looked impressive,
didnt draw enough i x t, and the fault blew itself open circuit first.
You may have been scared by this, but safetywise its pretty much a non-
issue.
While this is true, there are two caveats worth mentioning: If the
cables are the older style PVC with only a 1mm^2 CPC (modern cable has
1.5mm^2) then it is worth moving away from rewireable fuses since the
protection will be marginal or insufficient in many cases. If the power
(i.e. socket) circuits currently have no RCD protection then again it is
worth introducing this, which realistically will also mean a CU swap.

Are any figures available that show injury and/or deaths rates are
less under the new regime (in this case an RCD CU) than the old (a
fused CU)?

Its a good question, and I don't know how easy it would be to get
figures in the exact form required... Until recently[1] deaths from
electrocution have fallen year on year in absolute terms for quite a
number of years, even though usage of appliances has risen. This won't
be attributable to just one improvement in safety, but a collective
effect of which RCDs have been a part quite a number of years now.

[1] In the last couple of years this trend seems to be showing signs of
reversing - strangely coincident with the introduction of Part P

A casual reading of the group suggests that there are a number
potential benefits from the technical advances in going from the
former to the other latter - but how does it work out in practice?

Not sure I follow the question - do you mean what will be the change in
user experience? or the actual process of making the change?


--
Cheers,

John.

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