Skip to main content Skip to footer Two identical boards, two identical faults, two very different quotes. One sits in a warm hall cupboard beside the meter. The other is in an external box on a gable wall facing the North Sea, or up a shared close two floors above the flat it feeds. Same product, different job. This page walks through the four places a board actually lives in this town, what each one changes, and what to specify so the replacement outlives the last one. From £550 + VAT.
Four positions cover almost every property in Fraserburgh. Find yours, because it drives the access, the specification and a good part of the price.
Hall cupboard, under the stairs, in a utility. Meter and board together, short tails, dry and warm. This is the straightforward case and the one the price lists are written for.
What it changes: very little. Usually a single day, minimal making good, no third party involved.
A recessed or surface box on an outside wall, often on the weather side. Common on a lot of Fraserburgh stock, and the position that ages hardest in a town where the wind carries salt off the sea most of the year.
What it changes: the enclosure specification, the sealing at every cable entry, and whether the board should stay outside at all. Sometimes the right answer is to bring the board inside and leave only the meter out there.
Flatted property where the meters and boards sit in the common stair rather than inside the flat, sometimes on a half landing, sometimes in a cupboard shared with neighbours.
What it changes: access and agreement, which is why this is the position most likely to delay a job. Detail below.
Meter in one place, board in another, connected by a long set of tails, often the result of an extension, a conversion or a kitchen being moved at some point.
What it changes: the tails themselves, whether an isolator is needed, and occasionally whether the meter position has to be revisited, which is the energy supplier's territory rather than ours.
This is the position that turns a one day job into a three week one, and almost always for reasons that have nothing to do with the electrics. Worth knowing before you book rather than on the morning.
None of this is a reason to leave a dangerous board in place. It is a reason to sort out the access question first, which costs a phone call rather than a wasted visit.
Corrosion is not a diagnosis on this page, it is a design input. What you fit in a warm hall cupboard and what you fit in an external box on the weather side are not the same specification, and quoting them at the same price means somebody is getting the wrong one.
| Consideration | Sheltered interior position | Exposed or unheated position |
|---|---|---|
| Enclosure | Standard metal domestic enclosure | Enclosure and ingress rating chosen for the actual exposure, sealed properly at every entry rather than left to a grommet |
| Cable entries | Straightforward glanding | Entries sealed and, where sensible, arranged so water cannot track along a cable into the enclosure |
| Terminals | Torqued and recorded | Torqued and recorded, with terminal condition specifically checked, since salt laden air attacks connections before it attacks anything else |
| Condensation | Rarely an issue | Deliberately considered. Warm damp air meeting a cold metal enclosure is what corrodes a board from the inside |
| Position itself | Leave it | Genuinely worth asking whether the board should move inside and only the meter stay out |
Surface marking on an enclosure is cosmetic and does not condemn anything. What matters is corrosion at the terminals and busbar, because that is a connection problem, and connection problems generate heat. That distinction is made by opening the board and looking, not by looking at the outside of it.
Whatever the position, a board change is when the main earthing and the main protective bonding to the water and gas services get checked and corrected. Missing or undersized bonding is the single most common extra we find, and it is a genuine safety item rather than an upsell. It is quoted separately after survey.
A straightforward replacement is one day. Here is what actually happens in it, so you can plan around the power being off.
We test the existing installation first, because fitting a new board means taking responsibility for the circuits behind it. If something is going to fail, both of us want to know while the old board is still on the wall.
Power off. If a fridge or freezer needs to stay alive we arrange a temporary supply rather than leaving you to run an extension from a neighbour. In a shared close this is also when the stair gets its heads up.
Old board off, new enclosure mounted, every circuit reconnected, identified and labelled properly rather than with a biro on a strip of tape. Earthing and main bonding corrected where the survey flagged it. Tails and isolation dealt with if the position needs it.
Continuity, insulation resistance, polarity, earth fault loop impedance and RCD trip times, circuit by circuit. If a circuit fails you are told, with the reading, and it is quoted separately. Nothing that failed gets quietly energised.
An Electrical Installation Certificate with the full schedule of test results, a labelled board, and two minutes showing you which switch is which and how to test an RCD. That certificate is what a solicitor, insurer or letting agent will ask for.
The current standard is BS 7671:2018+A4:2026, published on 15 April 2026 and mandatory from 15 October 2026, when the previous version is withdrawn. It is still the 18th Edition. Worth knowing that Amendment 4's headline changes cover battery storage, ICT earthing, Power over Ethernet and medical locations, so none of them forces a domestic board upgrade. All RCBO boards are best practice rather than a legal requirement, a dual RCD board remains compliant, and a plastic enclosure is not retrospectively a fault. We break all of that down properly on our Peterhead consumer unit page.
The correction, because it has appeared on Scottish pages including our own previously. Scotland has no competent person scheme and no Building Control notification. Those are England and Wales mechanisms, as is Part P, which does not apply here. In Scotland the framework is the Building (Scotland) Regulations and Building Standards, administered for Fraserburgh by Aberdeenshire Council. No building warrant is required to replace a consumer unit in an existing house, but the work must comply with BS 7671 and be tested and certified, which is what your certificate evidences.
One point that genuinely differs if you let property here: arc fault detection devices are required on socket circuits up to 32 A in HMOs, high rise residential, purpose built student accommodation and care homes, and only recommended in an ordinary dwelling. A licensed HMO therefore has a requirement the identical flat next door does not. Landlords also need a satisfactory EICR at least every five years under the Repairing Standard, with a copy to tenants.
And one duty that is real but routinely overstated. Since 1 March 2024 the Repairing Standard has required one or more RCDs rated at no more than 30 mA in the main consumer unit, normally covering the socket outlet circuit as a minimum, with the precise requirement depending on the installation. It does not require every circuit to be RCD protected, and it does not automatically fail a split load board, which has RCDs covering the socket circuits and will generally comply. What it does catch is a let property with no RCD protection at all. If you have been told a compliant board now fails, ask which paragraph that comes from.
From £550 + VAT, with a guide up to £950 + VAT depending on circuit count and complexity. All prices exclude VAT.
| Work | Price |
|---|---|
| Consumer unit upgrade, typical 100A domestic | from £550, guide to £950 + VAT |
| Consumer unit with EV charger bundle | £750 to £1,000 + VAT |
| Surge protection device, per device | £40 to £80 + VAT |
| RCBO, per device plus install | £25 to £30 + VAT |
| EICR to establish the condition first | from £150 + VAT |
| Earthing or bonding upgrade, exposed position work | quoted after survey |
Position A, inside beside the meter, is the figure the from price describes. Everything else adds work rather than product. An external position adds sealing, enclosure specification and weather dependent access. A shared close adds arranging access and working in a space you do not solely control. A board remote from the meter adds tails, and sometimes isolation.
Two things are quoted separately rather than absorbed, and we would rather name them here than surprise you: earthing and bonding corrections at the origin, and any circuit that fails its test during the change. Cable runs beyond fifteen metres are also chargeable extras quoted after survey.
If the survey shows the board is sound and the real problem is one circuit, we will tell you that and quote the circuit. A board change is not the answer to every fault, and selling one where it will not fix the symptom is how firms get reviews they deserve.
The Broch itself, the harbour area and the surrounding coastal villages and inland Buchan.
Testing on our Fraserburgh EICR page, general work on our Fraserburgh electrician page, car charging on our Fraserburgh EV charger page. Also useful: the standards in detail, EICR explained, and when a rewire is the answer instead.
Don't see yours? Call 07304 027013 or get in touch. We come back the same business day.
Often yes, and it is worth asking. Bringing the board inside while leaving the meter in the external box takes the protective devices out of the weather entirely. Whether it is practical depends on what is behind the wall and where the tails can run, which is a survey question rather than a phone one.
It depends where. Surface marking on the outside of an enclosure is cosmetic. Corrosion at the terminals or the busbar is a connection problem, and connection problems generate heat, so that one matters. Telling the two apart means opening the board and looking.
Not to replace the consumer unit feeding your own flat. That is your installation and your decision, even though it physically sits in common space. What you do need is access, so it is worth establishing early who holds the key. Anything genuinely shared, such as the stair lighting or a common supply, is a different conversation with the factor or the owners.
Your flat will. The common supply may need brief isolation depending on the arrangement, so we tell you in advance and a note through neighbours' doors the day before saves a lot of bother.
No warrant is required to replace a consumer unit in an existing house. And a correction worth making: Scotland has no competent person scheme and no Building Control notification, because those are England and Wales mechanisms, as is Part P. Here it is the Building (Scotland) Regulations with Aberdeenshire Council as the authority. The work must comply with BS 7671 and be certified.
No. Amendment 4 was published on 15 April 2026 and becomes mandatory on 15 October 2026, but its main changes cover battery storage, ICT earthing, Power over Ethernet and medical locations. None of them forces a domestic consumer unit upgrade.
No to both. A dual RCD split load board remains compliant, and individual RCBOs are better because of what happens when a fault occurs rather than because a regulation demands them. The requirement for non combustible enclosures applies to new installations and does not make your existing plastic board a defect.
If it is a licensed HMO, yes and genuinely so: arc fault detection is required on socket circuits up to 32 A, where an ordinary dwelling only has it recommended. All landlords also need a satisfactory EICR at least every five years under the Repairing Standard, with a copy going to tenants.
A straightforward replacement is a single day with the power off for most of it. Board changes are fairly clean work, but where the position needs sealing or the tails need rerouting there can be some making good, and we tell you what that involves at quote rather than after.
You get told, with the reading that shows it, and it is quoted separately. A board change means taking responsibility for what the board protects, so a circuit that failed its test does not get energised and forgotten.
Call Steven directly on 07304 027013, message us on WhatsApp, or use the form. The single most useful thing you can tell us is which of the four positions above yours is in, and whether it is a house or a flat in a shared stair. That determines the access, the specification and most of the price, and it means the quote you get is the price you pay. NICEIC approved, SELECT member, City and Guilds 2365-03 installation, 2391-52 inspection and testing, 2382-22 wiring regulations, £2M public liability insured.
Faithful Spark Electricians Ltd · Consumer unit upgrades across Fraserburgh & north Buchan · NICEIC Approved Contractor · SELECT Member · City and Guilds 2391-52, 2382-22, 2365-03, 2921-34 · BS 7671 18th Edition · £2M public liability insured
