Consumer unit replacement and rewiring in Alicante

Most Alicante flats sit in blocks built between the 1950s and 1970s, and their electrical installations were designed for the demand of that period.

Nothing about the wiring has failed. What changed is everything plugged into it.

How demand outgrew the installation

A flat wired in 1965 was designed around lighting, a fridge, a radio and perhaps a washing machine. Its circuits and their conductor sizes reflect that, and for that use they were entirely adequate. Sixty years later the same circuits carry an induction hob, an oven, a microwave, a dishwasher, air conditioning, several televisions, a router that never sleeps and increasingly a car charger.

The load did not arrive at once, which is why nobody noticed. It arrived one appliance at a time across six decades, each addition made to whichever circuit was nearest, and each individually reasonable. The result is a board where the kitchen circuit carries most of the flat and everything hangs off one or two residual current devices.

The symptom is a trip that goes when two ordinary appliances run together. Owners read that as a fault and reset it; it is actually the installation reporting accurately that it is being asked for more than it was built to give.

What makes this fixable at reasonable cost in Alicante is that most of these blocks were built with corrugated conduit in the walls, and a great deal of it is still usable. Where new cable can be drawn through the existing conduit, the flat gets circuits it never had without anyone opening a wall — which is the difference between the cheapest of the three possible jobs and the most expensive.