Fuse

A Fuse is a thin piece of wire which melts when excess current is passed, thus breaking the circuit.

Fuses are used:

in mains plugs
inside appliances
in the CU or fusebox
- MCBs and RCBOs may be used instead in these
at the supply company's mains incomer
and other non-DIY uses

Fuse Ratings

A fuse's rated current is the current it can pass indefinitely in a worst case situation. The current at which it fuses is significantly higher.

Very slow fusing occurs at currents moderately above rated current
Very fast fusing occurs at currents several times rated current

To illustrate, a 13A mains plug fuse can pass 25A for about 30 minutes before it blows.

Mains Plug Fuses

Smaller 20mm glass cartridge fuse to the left of a BS1362 plug fuse

BS1362 Mains plug fuses are available in ratings of

2A
3A
5A
7A
10A
13A
There are also some non-BS1362 1A fuses in use.

3A & 13A are by far the most common plug fuses. 1A, 7A & 10A are not seen often today.

Mains plug fuses use sand filled ceramic cartridges for extra breaking capacity. Do not use glass fuses in mains plugs, these don't have the breaking capacity sometimes required.

The great majority of appliances are safe on a 13A fuse, but there are certainly exceptions, mostly old equipment. Using a lower fuse value where possible can reduce risk of fire. Discussion of this.

Fusing Characteristics for 3A and 13A BS1362 Plug Fuses

The fusing characteristics for 3A and 13A fuses are shown in the above graph. To use the graph, look up the prospective fault or overload current along the horizontal axis. Each fuse has a left and right hand line that represents the lower and upper limits of the expected trip time. the vertical space between the two lines for the given current and fuse type indicates the range of time required for disconnection to take place. A current to the left of both lines will be carried indefinitely, and one to the right of both lines will be disconnected "instantly" (or at lease within 0.001 secs - assuming the current is within the breaking capacity of the fuse).

Modern mains plus fuses are ASTA marked and conform to a standard set of colours. Old fuses that use other colours aren't always the rating they should be.

Equipment Fuses

Glass Fuses

20mm & the older 1.25" glass fuses are widely used in appliances. There are 3 common types of these fuses:

Quick blow
Slow blow
Time delay

The type is indicated by the construction inside the glass and the marking on one metal endcap.

Example markings:

F1A - 1A quick blow fuse, uses a plain fuse wire.
T2A - slow blow 2A, uses fuse wire with a few small nodules on it
T5A - time delay 5A, uses a spring & solder joint

The slow blow 'nodules' and time delay 'spring' types of fuses are not equivalent, time delays blow a good deal slower than slow blow, and that extra time delay is needed in some applications, such as where relatively high internal switch on currents are involved, as is routinely the case inside appliance power supplies and with motors.

Microwave Ovens

Ceramic microwave oven fuses should not be replaced with glass fuses. The fuse inside a microwave is a safety critical component, much more so than other electrical fuses. It is relied on to prevent the user being cooked if the interlock system fails.

Wire Link Fuses

As well as their use in CUs, wire link fuses are occasionally used in low cost appliances, such as wallwarts. These are simply a link of very thin wire. When repairing such goods, if you find a very thin filament of wire in use, it may be a bad idea to replace it with ordinary thicker wire.

When using fuse wire for fuse links, bear in mind that the fuse rating is dependant on length as well as wire diameter. Standard 5A wire is rated 5A at 1.25", and when shorter lengths are used, the current rating goes up significantly.

Although copper (of suitable thickness) can be used as a fuse wire, it is not generally recommended, as copper reaches very high temperature before it melts. This can cause fire.

Others

Other fuse types are also sometimes used in appliances. These include small round encapsulated fuses soldered to a PCB, sometimes surface mount fuses, safety resistors, and less often car type fuses. There are also self resetting thermal devices sometimes used to replace fuses; these only need be left to cool down to reset.

Interpreting Fuse Failure

It is possible to glean some information about the nature of the fault that caused a fuse to blow:

Wire ends melted, surroundings clean: moderate overload, very slow blow.
Wire ends melted, surroundings clean, but signs of overheating of the fuseholder: long standing moderate overload, eventual blow.
Wire ends melted, a little blackening around fuse wire: fairly large overload current, quick blow.
Just a blackened mess: Very high overload current, very fast blow.
Surroundings clean, no blob of molten fusewire on either broken end: fusewire fractured due to mechanical causes, not an overload fault. Typically seen with very low current fuses (2A and below) and glass fuses with a loose end.

Low Voltage Fuses

All fuses have a voltage rating above which they may be unable to break the circuit.

Fuses designed for vehicles are usually 32v rated, and should never be used at mains voltage, as they are likely to be unable to stop the flow of current.

20mm glass fuses should not be used to replace better specified fuses, 20mm have very low current breaking ratings inadequate for many mains voltage applications.

Mains fuses can safely be used at lower voltage. The lower voltage doesn't affect their current rating.

Rewirable Fuses

Widely used in fuseboards and CUs
Low cost
Rarely nuisance trip when a light bulb fails.
Can be abused householders or tenants putting thick wire in their place.
Fusing factor requires circuit cable de-rating to 70% of nominal current carrying capacity.

MCBs have become more popular than rewirable fuses due to pushbutton ease of resetting, and the popular belief that they offer of extra safety because they're newer. For details see Comparison with Fuses

MCBs are recommended for let properties, where tenants might abuse rewirable fuses.

Fuses are recommended for lighting circuits, where MCBs sometimes produce nuisance trips on bulb failure, creating a safety issue and inconvenience.

Fusing response curves (click for enlargement):

Fuse wire sizes

Sizes of tinned copper wire for use in semi-enclosed fuses

Nominal current of fuse element (A)	Nominal diameter of wire (mm)
3	0.15
5	0.20
10	0.35
15	0.50
20	0.60
25	0.75
30	0.85
45	1.25
60	1.53
80	1.80
100	2.00

Incomer Fuses (BS 88 "HRC" & BS 1361)

BS 88 & BS 1361 Type II fuses are used in electrical mains incomers. This is where the mains supply enters the property, before the meter.

Fusing time response curves. Click for enlargement:

Pulling the Incomer Fuse

When replacing a CU or fusebox it is necessary to de-energise the supply. Working with live tails is not a good plan.

The supply company may de-energise the supply for you, and may fit an isolating switch. Sometimes they won't do it, or will do it, but only at a price.

Pulling the fuse yourself is not permitted, but for several reasons its generally accepted that supply companies would rather you do that than work live, so have not been known to object or take any action in practice. Pulling live fuses is common practice with professional domestic electricians, and is a much smaller risk than working live.

Fuse Safety

Fuses are safety devices, serving to prevent many cases of fire, shock and equipment damage.

Abuse

The one significant issue with fuses is the tendency of some users to remove the fuse and replace it with something ineffective, such as thicker wire or a bolt. A card of fusewire kept on the fusebox eliminates most such temptation.

Rating

Fuses permit some amount of sustained overload, so cables protected by fuses which might be run at above the fuse rating, in particular domestic ring circuits, need to be able to safely carry more than the fuse's rated capacity. The degree of difference in this overcurrent between fuse and MCB is why there is a difference in rating between 30A fuses and 32A MCBs used on ring circuits.

A Common Fusebox Design Issue

Touch issue

Some older types of fusebox are designed in such a way that pulling out a fuse carrier with the main switch on is liable to result in electric shock. This is a matter of historic fusebox design rather than safety of the fuse itself. There are many of these boxes still in service; a fuse should not be pulled with power switched on for other reasons too.

Refs

Fusing times