Just having a quick look at this to try and identify circuits from the
colour of the fuses (cartridge or wire, not sure which).

I know these are getting less common as time goes on, but it would be
helpful dealing with old installations.

I think that red dot is 30/32 amp for ring mains, white dot is 5/6 amp
lighting.

However there seem to be two blue dots.

https://www.electriciansforums.co.uk/threads/main-fuse-colours.15106/

White-5A
Grey-10A
Blue-15A
Yellow-20A
Red-30A
Green-45A

As far as I know there is 13 amp, lighting, an electric oven from Ikea
(which may or may not be 13A), a combi boiler (which may or may not have
its own circuit) and an electric shower which should have a green 45A.

There are two red dot, one white dot, and two (apparently) blue dot.

More later.

Cheers


Dave R




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David wrote:

Just having a quick look at this to try and identify circuits from the
colour of the fuses
White-5A
Grey-10A
Blue-15A
Yellow-20A
Red-30A
Green-45A

white, blue, yellow & red are correct for wylex boards

grey & green may be for other brands, or might be hen's teeth

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WYLEX-5-15-20-30-AMP/281558306805

In article ,
David writes:
Just having a quick look at this to try and identify circuits from the
colour of the fuses (cartridge or wire, not sure which).

You absolutley mustn't assume things are wired up logically
or correctly or to the fuseways you think they should be.

I know these are getting less common as time goes on, but it would be
helpful dealing with old installations.

I think that red dot is 30/32 amp for ring mains, white dot is 5/6 amp
lighting.

However there seem to be two blue dots.

Could be immersion heater.

If it's really old and converted radial circuits, you could find
a ring circuit with a 15A fuse on each end of the ring.

https://www.electriciansforums.co.uk/threads/main-fuse-colours.15106/

White-5A
Grey-10A
Blue-15A
Yellow-20A
Red-30A
Green-45A

As far as I know there is 13 amp, lighting, an electric oven from Ikea
(which may or may not be 13A), a combi boiler (which may or may not have
its own circuit) and an electric shower which should have a green 45A.

There are two red dot, one white dot, and two (apparently) blue dot.

--
Andrew Gabriel
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On Sat, 20 Oct 2018 12:08:15 +0000, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

In article ,
David writes:
Just having a quick look at this to try and identify circuits from the
colour of the fuses (cartridge or wire, not sure which).

You absolutley mustn't assume things are wired up logically or correctly
or to the fuseways you think they should be.

I know these are getting less common as time goes on, but it would be
helpful dealing with old installations.

I think that red dot is 30/32 amp for ring mains, white dot is 5/6 amp
lighting.

However there seem to be two blue dots.

Could be immersion heater.

If it's really old and converted radial circuits, you could find a ring
circuit with a 15A fuse on each end of the ring.

https://www.electriciansforums.co.uk/threads/main-fuse-colours.15106/

White-5A Grey-10A Blue-15A Yellow-20A Red-30A Green-45A

As far as I know there is 13 amp, lighting, an electric oven from Ikea
(which may or may not be 13A), a combi boiler (which may or may not
have its own circuit) and an electric shower which should have a green
45A.

There are two red dot, one white dot, and two (apparently) blue dot.

There is no longer an immersion heater. The fuse cover has a note of which
fused serviced it but is definitely out of date.
There is an electric shower which needs a dedicated 45A circuit and I
can't immediately identify the expected green fuse carrier.

I am persuading the home owner to power down and pull the fuses to look at
the backs.

I suspect that a blue fuse carrier (previously for the immersion heater)
may now have a higher power fuse in for the shower but I would like to
check to be sure.

The house was previously a rental and had an electrical safety check a few
years back. I am assuming that simple things like fuse ratings were
included.


Cheers



Dave R

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David wrote:

I am persuading the home owner to power down and pull the fuses to look at
the backs.

I'd certainly recommend powering off while pulling fuses from such an
old board, you might find the shroud is snapped, or comes off with the
fuse leaving exposed conductors ...

On 20/10/2018 13:27, David wrote:

There is no longer an immersion heater. The fuse cover has a note of which
fused serviced it but is definitely out of date.
There is an electric shower which needs a dedicated 45A circuit and I
can't immediately identify the expected green fuse carrier.

I am persuading the home owner to power down and pull the fuses to look at
the backs.

I suspect that a blue fuse carrier (previously for the immersion heater)
may now have a higher power fuse in for the shower but I would like to
check to be sure.

The house was previously a rental and had an electrical safety check a few
years back. I am assuming that simple things like fuse ratings were
included.


I suspect that this is the rewireable fuse wire holders. They had two
dots on them.




--
Adam

On 20/10/2018 13:27, David wrote:

The house was previously a rental and had an electrical safety check a few
years back. I am assuming that simple things like fuse ratings were
included.

And it passed the inspection?


--
Adam

On Sat, 20 Oct 2018 11:10:31 +0000, David wrote:

Just having a quick look at this to try and identify circuits from the
colour of the fuses (cartridge or wire, not sure which).

I know these are getting less common as time goes on, but it would be
helpful dealing with old installations.

I think that red dot is 30/32 amp for ring mains, white dot is 5/6 amp
lighting.

However there seem to be two blue dots.

https://www.electriciansforums.co.uk/threads/main-fuse-colours.15106/

White-5A Grey-10A Blue-15A Yellow-20A Red-30A Green-45A

As far as I know there is 13 amp, lighting, an electric oven from Ikea
(which may or may not be 13A), a combi boiler (which may or may not have
its own circuit) and an electric shower which should have a green 45A.

There are two red dot, one white dot, and two (apparently) blue dot.

More later.

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/a/a4/Fuse_Box.jpg

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/4/4d/Other_Thing.jpg

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/c/c9/RCCB_MCB.jpg

As posted a while back I was distracted by the waste pipe buggeration and
the hardest bricks in the country, otherwise I would have had the time to
investigate.

Cheers


Dave R

--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

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On Saturday, 20 October 2018 14:07:20 UTC+1, David WE Roberts (Google) wrote:
On Sat, 20 Oct 2018 11:10:31 +0000, David wrote:

Just having a quick look at this to try and identify circuits from the
colour of the fuses (cartridge or wire, not sure which).

I know these are getting less common as time goes on, but it would be
helpful dealing with old installations.

I think that red dot is 30/32 amp for ring mains, white dot is 5/6 amp
lighting.

However there seem to be two blue dots.

https://www.electriciansforums.co.uk/threads/main-fuse-colours.15106/

White-5A Grey-10A Blue-15A Yellow-20A Red-30A Green-45A

As far as I know there is 13 amp, lighting, an electric oven from Ikea
(which may or may not be 13A), a combi boiler (which may or may not have
its own circuit) and an electric shower which should have a green 45A.

There are two red dot, one white dot, and two (apparently) blue dot.

More later.

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/a/a4/Fuse_Box.jpg

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/4/4d/Other_Thing.jpg

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/c/c9/RCCB_MCB.jpg

As posted a while back I was distracted by the waste pipe buggeration and
the hardest bricks in the country, otherwise I would have had the time to
investigate.

Cheers


Dave R

The blue dots, if they do have 15A wire in them, could be running anything. More likely candidates would be... well, anything. The obvious solution is to pull them with power off to see what they power. Do not do this while on, those carriers have live parts so close to the wings that they're likely to be touched while removing the fuseholder.


NT

On 20/10/2018 14:07, David wrote:
On Sat, 20 Oct 2018 11:10:31 +0000, David wrote:

Just having a quick look at this to try and identify circuits from the
colour of the fuses (cartridge or wire, not sure which).

I know these are getting less common as time goes on, but it would be
helpful dealing with old installations.

I think that red dot is 30/32 amp for ring mains, white dot is 5/6 amp
lighting.

Yup, typically.

However there seem to be two blue dots.

https://www.electriciansforums.co.uk/threads/main-fuse-colours.15106/

Typically 15A - so radials to dedicated appliances, or perhaps small
bunches of sockets.

As far as I know there is 13 amp, lighting, an electric oven from Ikea
(which may or may not be 13A), a combi boiler (which may or may not have
its own circuit) and an electric shower which should have a green 45A.

I don't recall ever seeing that style of CU with green dot fuses. Only
what you have, and possibly yellow.

There are two red dot, one white dot, and two (apparently) blue dot.

More later.

Some wider shots of the whole installation might help us give you a
better run down of what is there and how it works as a system.
However from what we can see he

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/a/a4/Fuse_Box.jpg

Yup, bog standard 6 way wylex BS3036 rewireable fuse box. The fuse
carriers look like Blank, 15A, 5A, 15A, 30A, 30A going left to right.

The fuse cover is missing (common) - and has been for a while (the screw
hole is covered by the sticker)

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/4/4d/Other_Thing.jpg

I am guessing that someone has added this RCD as a "whole house" unit -
it probably has its output split and then feeds the wylex unit and the
more modern small CU to its left. (here is where the wider shot would
help to trace the wires etc)

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/c/c9/RCCB_MCB.jpg

Small CU with another RCD (might be downstream of the Mem branded one in
the other box). You have two circuits, a 40A and a 32A. The former is
probably the shower circuit. I would guess this CU was added when the
shower was installed.




--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On Sat, 20 Oct 2018 17:41:24 +0100, John Rumm wrote:

On 20/10/2018 14:07, David wrote:
On Sat, 20 Oct 2018 11:10:31 +0000, David wrote:

Just having a quick look at this to try and identify circuits from the
colour of the fuses (cartridge or wire, not sure which).

I know these are getting less common as time goes on, but it would be
helpful dealing with old installations.

I think that red dot is 30/32 amp for ring mains, white dot is 5/6 amp
lighting.

Yup, typically.

However there seem to be two blue dots.

https://www.electriciansforums.co.uk/threads/main-fuse-colours.15106/

Typically 15A - so radials to dedicated appliances, or perhaps small
bunches of sockets.

As far as I know there is 13 amp, lighting, an electric oven from Ikea
(which may or may not be 13A), a combi boiler (which may or may not
have its own circuit) and an electric shower which should have a green
45A.

I don't recall ever seeing that style of CU with green dot fuses. Only
what you have, and possibly yellow.

There are two red dot, one white dot, and two (apparently) blue dot.

More later.

Some wider shots of the whole installation might help us give you a
better run down of what is there and how it works as a system.
However from what we can see he

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/a/a4/Fuse_Box.jpg

Yup, bog standard 6 way wylex BS3036 rewireable fuse box. The fuse
carriers look like Blank, 15A, 5A, 15A, 30A, 30A going left to right.

The fuse cover is missing (common) - and has been for a while (the screw
hole is covered by the sticker)

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/4/4d/Other_Thing.jpg

I am guessing that someone has added this RCD as a "whole house" unit -
it probably has its output split and then feeds the wylex unit and the
more modern small CU to its left. (here is where the wider shot would
help to trace the wires etc)

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/c/c9/RCCB_MCB.jpg

Small CU with another RCD (might be downstream of the Mem branded one in
the other box). You have two circuits, a 40A and a 32A. The former is
probably the shower circuit. I would guess this CU was added when the
shower was installed.

Thanks - that makes a lot of sense.

I did post some wide angler shots before the house purchase but it is a
rat's nest and I couldn't trace the wires in the brief time I spent
looking.

I'm now wondering what the spurs might be for.

It would be nice of one was for the fan oven and the other for the combi
boiler.

I should give up guessing and wait for the owner to get round to the
diagnostic work.

Cheers


Dave R



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David wrote:
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/a/a4/Fuse_Box.jpg

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/4/4d/Other_Thing.jpg

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/c/c9/RCCB_MCB.jpg

You've got a 40A breaker in the new CU - that's probably the shower.
Hopefully it's less than 9.2kW.
The 30A breaker, or one of the red-dot fuses, may be the cooker - even
if there's only an oven it's probably wired for a hob as well. The other
two are presumably ring socket circuits.
The white dot will certainly be the lights, and one of the blue will be
the old immersion heater circuit - probably via the time clock on the
right.
The other blue could be anything, though probably a single appliance. It
could feed a garage if there is one.

The RCD arrangement is a bit odd. If the bottom RCD feeds both boards
and is 30mA, then you've got no discrimination with the RCD in the
top-left board - the bottom one is working as a whole-house RCD, which
isn't to current standards as a trip will take out everything. If the
bottom RCD is 100mA time delayed, this is presumably a TT system with an
earth rod, and there's effectively no RCD protection on the fuseboard.
Alternatively the bottom RCD could just feed the old board, which isn't
ideal as there isn't one switch to turn everything off.

Mike

On Saturday, 20 October 2018 20:47:13 UTC+1, Mike Humphrey wrote:
David wrote:
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/a/a4/Fuse_Box.jpg

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/4/4d/Other_Thing.jpg

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/c/c9/RCCB_MCB.jpg

You've got a 40A breaker in the new CU - that's probably the shower.
Hopefully it's less than 9.2kW.
The 30A breaker, or one of the red-dot fuses, may be the cooker - even
if there's only an oven it's probably wired for a hob as well. The other
two are presumably ring socket circuits.
The white dot will certainly be the lights, and one of the blue will be
the old immersion heater circuit - probably via the time clock on the
right.
The other blue could be anything, though probably a single appliance. It
could feed a garage if there is one.

The RCD arrangement is a bit odd. If the bottom RCD feeds both boards
and is 30mA, then you've got no discrimination with the RCD in the
top-left board - the bottom one is working as a whole-house RCD, which
isn't to current standards as a trip will take out everything. If the
bottom RCD is 100mA time delayed, this is presumably a TT system with an
earth rod, and there's effectively no RCD protection on the fuseboard.
Alternatively the bottom RCD could just feed the old board, which isn't
ideal as there isn't one switch to turn everything off.

Mike

I've seen worse. One place with a whole collection of fusebox/CUs from the 1930s to present day. Why whoeevr fitted the modern one didn't include more ways & put the historic circuits into it I can't imagine. A dual pole fused 30A max fusebox with tool-lessly uncovered bare bits ain't ideal.


NT