A fuse box and a consumer unit serve the same purpose. They distribute electricity through multiple circuits and turn off the power when an overload occurs on one of the circuits. This is commonly known as ‘tripping’.
When tripping occurs, a consumer unit will switch the power off using the circuit breaker linked to the overloaded circuit. It will turn itself to the ‘off’ position so it is easy to identify where the fault lies. Once the issue is fixed, the circuit breaker can be switched back on and the power restored.