“Wareham is a different patch from Poole. Half the village properties around BH20 are on TT earthing — their own earth rod in the garden, not the network earth. Get the board upgrade right and you stop the nuisance trips that kept the previous owner cycling the breakers every winter. Get it wrong and the new RCBOs trip even faster than the old ones did. I always test the earth-loop impedance on site before I quote — you can’t guess your way through a TT system from the meter cupboard. The other Wareham thing is the thatched cottages out toward Lulworth and East Stoke — AFDDs cost £65 a circuit and they’re the cheapest fire-prevention you’ll ever buy on a property like that.”
— Tim Collier, Founder & NICEIC Engineer
Wareham Consumer Unit Upgrade Pricing
Fixed price after a free 15-minute on-site survey. Every figure below includes the new board, all RCBOs, labour, full test schedule, NICEIC certificate, and Building Control notification through the competent-person scheme.
| Board type | Price (fully fitted) |
|---|---|
| 6-way RCBO board (small flat / annex) | From £450 |
| 10-way RCBO board (Sandford terrace, 1960s semi) | From £550 |
| 14-way RCBO board (4–5 bed detached, period cottage with extension) | From £750 |
| Add SPD (surge protection — recommended on overhead-fed BH20 supplies) | + £95 |
| Add AFDD (arc fault detection — thatched properties) | + £65/circuit |
| TT earth rod replacement & re-bonding (rural BH20) | + £150–£250 |
| Three-phase board (farm, milking parlour, grain dryer) | From £1,200 |
Most Wareham properties land in the 10-way bracket. Period cottages around the Walls, the Quay and St Martin’s Lane often need 14-way boards once you separate kitchen, shower, garden, and any extension circuits cleanly.
Which Board Do You Need?
The most common question we get on a Wareham survey: “What size board does my property need?” This decision aid covers the property types we see most often around BH20 — the cost is the all-in fitted price, not just the board.
| Property type | Recommended board | All-in price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio or 1-bed flat / annex | 6-way RCBO | From £450 | Lighting + ring main + cooker + 1 spare way |
| 2–3 bed terrace or semi (typical Sandford / Bere Regis) | 10-way RCBO | From £550 | Adds dedicated circuits for kitchen, shower, EV-future |
| 4-bed detached (typical Wareham new-build) | 14-way RCBO | From £750 | Separates upstairs/downstairs sockets, garden circuits, study |
| Period cottage with extension or annex (Stoborough / East Stoke) | 14-way RCBO + SPD | From £900 | Surge protection recommended for rural overhead-fed supplies |
| Rural farm or smallholding (TT earthing) | 14-way + dedicated earth electrode upgrade | From £1,100 | Often needs new earth rod & main bonding alongside the board |
| Three-phase rural / commercial supply | Three-phase distribution board | From £1,200 | Common for farms with grain dryers, milking parlours, charging banks |
Not sure which row matches your property? Send us a photo of your existing fuse box on WhatsApp and we’ll come back with a recommendation in under an hour.
How a Lilliput Wareham Consumer Unit Upgrade Works
Three steps from first call to fully certified board. No call centre, no subcontractor — you deal with Tim or Oscar directly throughout.
1. Free survey & fixed quote
We come to your Wareham property, photograph the existing board, test the earth-loop impedance (essential on TT systems), check incoming supply arrangement, inspect meter tails and main earth, and document each circuit. Fixed-price written quote within 24 hours — no creeping “estimates” that change on the day.
2. Booked install day
Most BH20 jobs are booked within 1–2 weeks. On the day we arrive 8:30 AM, isolate at the cutout (we coordinate with SSEN — Wareham’s DNO — if a meter seal needs pulling), fit the new RCBO board, re-terminate every circuit, label clearly, and run the full test schedule. Power back same afternoon.
3. Certification & aftercare
Hard-copy NICEIC Electrical Installation Certificate on the day, digital copies within 5 working days, and Building Regulations compliance certificate via Building Control auto-notification — no paperwork on your end. Six-year workmanship guarantee on every board we fit.
Recent Consumer Unit Upgrade in Wareham
A typical BH20 job: a 1970s detached in Sandford with the original Wylex split-load board still on rewireable fuses. The owner had been getting nuisance trips on the upstairs sockets every time the immersion heater kicked in — classic shared-RCD overload pattern. We surveyed Tuesday morning, quoted the same evening at £585 (10-way RCBO + new earth tail), and fitted on the Friday. The owner’s feedback was that the kitchen radio coming back on at 14:20 was the first time since they’d moved in that the lights, fridge and immersion had all been on at once without anything tripping.
What Actually Changes When You Upgrade
For most Wareham customers the £450–£1,200 spend translates into four practical changes worth understanding before we start the work.
From rewireable fuses to RCBO protection
- Rewireable fuses (BS 3036) and BS 1361 cartridges are slow to disconnect under fault — they meet the regulations of 1970, not 2018.
- RCBOs combine overcurrent and earth-fault protection, disconnecting in under 40 ms when they detect a 30 mA earth leakage. That’s the difference between a tingle and a trip to A&E.
- Each circuit gets its own RCBO, so a fault in the kitchen never takes the lights or upstairs sockets out.
From plastic to metal enclosure
- BS 7671:2018 (the 18th Edition) requires consumer units inside dwellings to be in metal enclosures or in a 30-minute fire-resistant cupboard.
- Old plastic boards melt and propagate fire. The shift to steel enclosures was driven directly by the Lakanal House and similar fires.
Optional surge and arc-fault protection
- SPD (Type 2 surge protection device): protects against transient overvoltage from grid switching and lightning. Recommended on the overhead-fed BH20 supplies that serve much of Stoborough and the Arne peninsula.
- AFDD (arc fault detection device): detects the low-grade arcing that ignites thatch through a hot wall spot. Strongly recommended for thatched properties around East Stoke, Wool, West Lulworth.
EICR codes that often trigger an upgrade
- C1 — Danger present: immediate risk; the board is made safe before the engineer leaves the property.
- C2 — Potentially dangerous: 28-day fix window for landlords. “No RCD on socket circuits” is the most common C2.
- C3 — Improvement recommended: not legally required but advised. Plastic enclosure or no SPD typically scores C3.
If your EICR has any C1s or C2s on the board, an upgrade is the cleanest fix. Read the legal context for landlords.
What Wareham & BH20 Customers Say
"I have used Lilliput electrical for about 11 years. Tim wired my kitchen extension, and put in a consumer unit when I moved into my home. More recently he has carried out a number of smaller jobs including moving a socket and advising about and fitting lighting. He is always courteous and very helpful. This firm is very trustworthy and the work is tidily completed. I have no hesitation in recommending them as genuinely no job is too big or too small."
Google Review
"Absolutely brilliant electrician. Always on time, tidy, good price, and top-quality work. Highly recommend."
Google Review
"Fantastic job from Tim & the team. Would highly recommend."
Google Review
BH20 Coverage — Postcodes & Drive Times
Same fixed pricing across every BH20 postcode. Drive times measured from our Poole base at Unit 45 Balena Close (BH17 7DY) via the A35.
| Postcode | Areas covered | Drive time |
|---|---|---|
| BH20 4 | Wareham town centre, the Walls, Quay | 22 min |
| BH20 5 | Sandford, Worgret, west Wareham | 24 min |
| BH20 6 | Wool, East Lulworth, West Lulworth | 32 min |
| BH20 7 | East Stoke, Stoborough, Arne peninsula | 26 min |
Outside BH20? See all Dorset coverage or jump to our Wareham area page for full electrical service details.
Wareham Consumer Unit FAQs
A standard domestic consumer unit upgrade in Wareham starts from £450 fully fitted — that includes the board, all RCBOs, labour, full test schedule, the NICEIC certificate, and Building Control notification. The Wareham-specific factor that nudges some quotes higher is rural earthing: properties on the BH20 fringe (Stoborough, East Stoke, Bere Regis, Wool) often have TT systems with their own earth rod rather than PME from the network, and that earth rod sometimes needs replacing alongside the board. We'll flag any of that on survey before quoting — fixed price, no surprises.
Yes. Wareham itself is 22 minutes from our Poole base via the A35 and Holton Heath. Stoborough is 26 minutes, East Stoke 28, Wool 32, Bere Regis 18. We do consumer-unit upgrades in all of these regularly — same fixed pricing, no per-mile surcharge inside BH20. The Arne peninsula and the more remote Lulworth villages take a little longer but are still part of our standard service area.
Yes, in two practical ways. First, TT systems require the upstream RCD/RCBO trip ratings to be coordinated with the earth-loop impedance you measure on site — so we test the existing rod before specifying the board, not after. Second, if the rod is a 1980s solid-copper electrode buried in dry chalky ground (common around the heath), we often replace it with a modern 1.2 m driven rod and re-bond as part of the upgrade. That's typically £150–£250 on top of the standard board price. The upside: TT properties get a much cleaner certificate and you stop nuisance-tripping every time the soil dries out.
Yes — a consumer-unit replacement is "notifiable work" 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 Purbeck (now Dorset Council) yourself, you don't pay a separate Building Control fee, and you get the Building Regulations compliance certificate by email a week or two 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+ to inspect.
Listed-building consent isn't normally needed for a like-for-like consumer-unit replacement because the board is internal. What does change is how we route any new cables: we avoid surface-mounted plastic trunking on visible walls, we re-use existing cable routes wherever possible, and where new cabling is unavoidable inside a listed property we use heritage-finish containment (brushed brass or painted steel). The Walls / St Martin's Lane / North Street properties we've worked on through the Wareham conservation area all came through with no issues.
Two things, both optional but strongly recommended. First, AFDDs (arc fault detection devices) on every circuit — these detect the kind of low-grade arcing that's invisible to a normal RCBO but can ignite thatch through a hot spot in a wall. They add about £65 per circuit. Second, an SPD (surge protection device) at the head of the board — thatched properties in BH20 are often on overhead supplies that pick up surge from grid switching and lightning, and a £95 SPD can save a board-full of damaged appliances. We flag both on survey and let you decide.
A straight swap is one day, typically 4–6 hours from supply isolation to re-energising. We arrive by 8:30 AM, isolate at the cutout (we contact SSEN if the meter seal needs pulling — Wareham is on the SSEN network not UKPN), fit the new board, terminate every circuit, and run the full test schedule before re-energising. You can absolutely stay in the property — just expect lights, heating, kettle and Wi-Fi to be off until early-to-mid afternoon. We do remind people to charge laptops and download anything they need before we cut the supply.
Yes. Every consumer-unit upgrade we do comes with a full Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC) issued under our NICEIC enrolment number, plus the Building Regulations compliance certificate from Building Control via the competent-person scheme. Both are accepted by mortgage lenders, conveyancing solicitors, and home buyers' surveyors. We email the digital copies within 5 working days and the original hard copy stays in your house file for the next surveyor.