Consumer Unit Upgrade Dorset — Modern RCBO Boards from £450

A modern RCBO consumer unit upgrade in Dorset starts from £450 fully fitted — that includes the new metal-enclosed board, all RCBOs, labour, full test schedule, NICEIC Electrical Installation Certificate, and Building Control notification through the competent-person scheme. Larger boards (10-way / 14-way), three-phase rural farm boards, or installations that need new meter tails or earth rod replacement run higher — typically £550 to £1,200. We give a fixed price after a free 15-minute survey, so there are no estimates that change on the day.

We cover Poole, Wareham, Wimborne and Christchurch in full from our Poole base at Unit 45 Balena Close (BH17 7DY) — same fixed pricing across all four. Pick the page closest to your postcode below for area-specific details, FAQs and recent jobs. We also cover Bournemouth, Sandbanks, Canford Cliffs, Broadstone and Ferndown — these consumer-unit jobs are usually quoted via our domestic electrical service.

A "fuse box" is the older terminology — a board with rewireable fuses or cartridge fuses that protect circuits from overcurrent only. A modern "consumer unit" replaces those fuses with miniature circuit breakers (MCBs), residual current devices (RCDs) or — best of all — RCBOs that combine both functions. RCBOs disconnect within 40 ms when they detect 30 mA of earth leakage. The 18th Edition wiring regulations (BS 7671:2018) require RCD protection on virtually every domestic circuit; pre-1990 boards are almost certainly non-compliant.

There's no law that forces a like-for-like upgrade purely because your board is old. Three triggers create legal pressure: (1) if you're a landlord, your 5-yearly EICR will record old-board non-compliance as a Code C2 (potentially dangerous) — you have 28 days to fix it to keep the property legally lettable; (2) if you're selling, the buyer's surveyor will flag an old board and that often becomes a price-renegotiation point; (3) if you're adding any major circuit (EV charger, electric shower, kitchen extension), the new circuit must be on a compliant board.

Yes — every consumer-unit upgrade we do includes a full Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC) issued under our NICEIC enrolment, plus a Building Regulations compliance certificate from Building Control via the competent-person scheme. Both are accepted by mortgage lenders, conveyancing solicitors, BCP Council Building Control, Dorset Council Building Control, and home-buyer surveyors. Hard copies are issued on the day; digital copies arrive within 5 working days.

Yes — a consumer-unit replacement is notifiable under Part P of the Building Regulations. Because we are NICEIC-registered and members of the competent-person scheme, we notify Building Control on your behalf automatically. You don't apply to BCP / Dorset Council yourself, you don't pay a separate Building Control fee, and you receive the compliance certificate by email shortly after the install. Try to use anyone who isn't in a competent-person scheme and you'll have to apply to the council yourself — and pay them £200+ for an inspection.