Fuse Box Vs CU.

SUNRAY · 7 Mar 2021

Sunray said said:
I've been involved with a good number of CU's in the last year or so, mostly rental changes, and I'd say that 100% of the customers and tenants understood the term 'fuse box' and at least 90% of them did not have a clue what a consumer unit is.

Winston1 said said:
And you missed all those opportunities to enlighten the customers? Shame on you.

The big shame is 99% of those 90% will not understand any attempt of education as they have known the term from childhood and see no reason to even begin to understand, let alone learn the new term.

Read more: https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/winston1s-errors-again.566098/page-3#ixzz6oQNB9SZt

ericmark · 7 Mar 2021

It seems to me the British law makers got it wrong. Fuse box, and consumer units are distribution unit, or distribution boards, and we have used the letter DB as far back as I can remember, common to see DB1, DB2, in most large establishments.

The CU is a type tested DB which can have fuse holders, MCB's, or RCBO's so the old Wilex fuse board is not a CU and to try to explain why the law will not allow me to fit type tested units but no ban on fitting non type tested without notifying I have never worked out?

And this is the problem if you start nick picking with names you end up completely confusing even those in the trade, to say fitting a FCU to supply a line of new sockets is not a new circuit never understood.

But not ours to reason why

JohnW2 · 7 Mar 2021

SUNRAY said:
I've been involved with a good number of CU's in the last year or so, mostly rental changes, and I'd say that 100% of the customers and tenants understood the term 'fuse box' and at least 90% of them did not have a clue what a consumer unit is.

SUNRAY said:
The big shame is 99% of those 90% will not understand any attempt of education as they have known the term from childhood and see no reason to even begin to understand, let alone learn the new term.

Yes, whilst there are situations in which attempts at 'education' may be appropriate (and perhaps even partially successful), there are others in which it is essentially a 'lost cause'.

As I and others have written elsewhere, the crucial thing when two people are trying to communicate (about anything) is that they use language which both fully understand, no matter what that language is. Healthcare professions are more used than many to the need to use different language when talking to the general public as compared with talking to each other.

I also suspect that there is at least a degree of hypocrisy on the part of some of those who insist that it is always essential to use "strictly correct technical terminology". For example (in the context of this thread), whilst the replacement an electrician was proposing to installed would presumably be a "Consumer Unit", in a good few cases the item being replaced would, over the years, have been changed in a manner which meant that it no longer qualified as being a "Consumer Unit" (per the BS7671 definition) - but they would probably talk about replacing the existing Consumer Unit. Just as well, really, since goodness knows how small would be the proportion of the general public who would have a clue as to what was meant by "Replacing the Distribution Board with a Consumer Unit"

Kind Regards, John

333rocky333 · 7 Mar 2021

When i go to a new job, depending on the size of the premises, i always ask where the "Fuseboards" are and the clients understand ok, on bigger sites the term Switch room usually works, Intake Room tends to baffle some.

Though clients often just say the "Trip Switches" are in there.

Even in the wholesalers i hear people ask for a 12way or whatever "Board" do not recall anyone asking for a Consumer unit

sparkwright · 7 Mar 2021

I think if I went around correcting the general public all the time about unimportant things like is a fuse box or a consumer unit, I would have been murdered now.

I don't mind too much what people call it.

It would be helpful sometimes if the public could differentiate between trips, breakers, MCBs, RCDs and all that, when you are trying to diagnose a fault over the phone, but you can't expect them to know - why would they want to? That's our job.

RF Lighting · 7 Mar 2021

Years and years ago I once went to a job where the customers hall light wasn't working. It was just a knackered BC lampholder, so a nice easy repair.

Once I'd swapped it, I asked the customer if she had a lamp for the hall light. She ummed and arred for a bit and came back 5 minutes later with a batten landholder saying I found this in the garage will that be ok. I then explained that I what a lamp is. She said oh you mean a light bulb why didn't you just say that! From that day on I have always called them light bulbs to my customers because they all know exactly what I'm talking about.

I too ask clients where their fuse box is and never in 25 years has a customer ever said I don't know what a fuse box is, or asked if I mean their consumer unit.

chivers67 · 7 Mar 2021

Lock The Thread RF has pretty much summed it up!

JohnW2 · 7 Mar 2021

333rocky333 said:
When i go to a new job, depending on the size of the premises, i always ask where the "Fuseboards" are and the clients understand ok, on bigger sites the term Switch room usually works, Intake Room tends to baffle some. Though clients often just say the "Trip Switches" are in there. Even in the wholesalers i hear people ask for a 12way or whatever "Board" do not recall anyone asking for a Consumer unit

sparkwright said:
I think if I went around correcting the general public all the time about unimportant things like is a fuse box or a consumer unit, I would have been murdered now. I don't mind too much what people call it.

Exactly - almost every discipline has its own language (both official/formal/technical and informal 'jargon') and it's unreasonable, unnecessary and unrealistic to expect the general public to be conversant with all those 'languages' - and that applies to electrics, plumbing, automotive engineering, medicine, law and virtually everything else.

However, fortunately, the people who work in those disciples are also 'ordinary people' and therefore will know, and be able to use, the language which is used by the general public. As we've both said, it doesn't really matter 'what people call it', so long as there is a clear understanding between the people concerned.

sparkwright said:
It would be helpful sometimes if the public could differentiate between trips, breakers, MCBs, RCDs and all that, when you are trying to diagnose a fault over the phone, but you can't expect them to know - why would they want to? That's our job.

Exactly. As per your example, it's sometimes necessary to seek clarification - but that, again, can be achieved by using 'ordinary' non-technical language - in that case simply asking whether it "has a test button" will usually be enough to tell one what one really wants/needs to know.

Kind Regards, John

JohnW2 · 7 Mar 2021

RF Lighting said:
Once I'd swapped it, I asked the customer if she had a lamp for the hall light. She ummed and arred for a bit and came back 5 minutes later with a batten landholder saying I found this in the garage will that be ok. I then explained that I what a lamp is. She said oh you mean a light bulb why didn't you just say that! From that day on I have always called them light bulbs to my customers because they all know exactly what I'm talking about. .... I too ask clients where their fuse box is and never in 25 years has a customer ever said I don't know what a fuse box is, or asked if I mean their consumer unit.

Exactly.

I'm sure that some of you will recall that when, a few years back, we were having this discussion I went into a whole pile of retail outlets (including car accessory places) and asked where I should look to find "lamps". I was usually directed somewhere, but in no case was it a place where I could find light bulbs. In a similar set of experiments, I got some very funny looks, and had some rather strange conversations, when I said that I was looking for a lamp for my table lamp/standard lamp/headlamp etc.

I imagine that much the same would be the case if (using what was intended to be 'electrician-speak') I asked to be directed to "low voltage" bulbs! ... and I'm not going to mention asking about 'transformers'

Kind Regards, John

JohnW2 · 7 Mar 2021

chivers67 said:
Lock The Thread RF has pretty much summed it up!

Indeed - but it's unusual to see us all singing from the same hymn sheet!

I can but presume that those who insist on the extreme importance of 'technically correct terminology' (and educating the general public about it, in relation, I presume, to every known 'technical' discipline) have not yet found this thread

Kind Regards, John

RF Lighting · 7 Mar 2021

Perhaps this thread highlights the difference between book learning and real world experience.

SUNRAY · 7 Mar 2021

I'll make a great big thank you to all contributers for some exceptional posts and formally ask MODs to lock the thread on my behalf, before the idiots join in.

I'll also add that that I invited MOD's to lock the thread, if they felt it appropriate, at the time I made OP.

JohnW2 · 8 Mar 2021

RF Lighting said:
Perhaps this thread highlights the difference between book learning and real world experience.

Yes, I think/hope that it does.

It is, of course, those (i.e. members of the general public) who are not 'in the trade' who ought to be best equipped to give an indication of what language is most likely to be understood when people in any trade or profession are conversing with the general public.

Kind Regards, John

JohnW2 · 8 Mar 2021

SUNRAY said:
I'll make a great big thank you to all contributers for some exceptional posts and formally ask MODs to lock the thread on my behalf, before the idiots join in.

Whilst I understand your comment in relation to the reason you started this thread, I should point out that the "those who insist on the extreme importance of 'technically correct terminology' (and educating the general public about it..." I mentioned above are by no means all 'idiots'. Some are very respected members of our group but, for whatever reason, none of them (nor the idiots

) seem to have contributed to this thread so far.

Kind Regards, John

ericmark · 8 Mar 2021

I remember ordering a head lamp, and that is what I got, minus the bulb.

Historically the lamp fitted on a spigot and in the lamp you had wick or mantel and these were replaced with a bulbous bit of glass with a filament inside. Later we had fluorescent tubes and other shapes of blown glass, but lighting industry has a habit of calling new items after what they replace, so bulb it is, even if no longer bulbous.

Same goes for ballast, transformer, and many other devices.

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Fuse Box Vs CU.

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