Bottom Line Up Front: Your home's distribution box (electrical panel) is typically located in the basement, garage, utility room, or mounted outside near your electrical meter. Every wire in your home — every socket, every light, every appliance circuit — traces back to a single grey box on the wall: the distribution board, also called a consumer unit or, in older installations, a fuse box. It receives power from the main electrical supply and divides it into separate circuits, each. A distribution board (also known as panelboard, circuit breaker panel, breaker panel, circuit breaker, electric panel, fuse box or DB box) is a component of an electricity supply system that divides an electrical power feed into subsidiary circuits while providing a protective fuse or circuit. An electrical distribution box, also known as a power distribution box, panelboard, or consumer unit, is the core of an electrical system.
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