Do I really need circuit breakers?

Q. I recently bought a homeowner’s policy, but now I’ve been informed that I will be dropped if I don’t upgrade and put in circuit breakers. I have a Cape Cod built in 1950. I don’t have a dishwasher, a dryer or central air conditioner. I live very modestly. I’ve been living here since 1969, and rarely do I need to change a fuse. Is it now a building code to have circuit breakers? If I apply for another insurance agent, would I have to go through the same ordeal? Our area has been evaluated as a flood zone. My former agent dropped us and won’t renew due to this evaluation.

A. I wasn’t shocked by your question, and hopefully you won’t get a jolt from my answer. The insurance company’s point of view, I’m guessing, is based more on safety than code because both fuses and circuit breakers are code-compliant solutions. Insurance companies are in business to make money, not spend it on claims that can be avoided. The difference is that fuses, which actually cost much less and operate for years, as in your case, aren’t considered by many code experts to be as safe for instant changes to the circuit if you have to run and turn the circuit on or off. There are times when a circuit breaker can be a lifesaver, and a fuse doesn’t allow fireman or other emergency responders to quickly disable a circuit.

In researching the answer to your question, I also learned that even advocacy groups for the blind have weighed in on the subject. While it’s true that a blind person isn’t hindered in turning a circuit on or off in the dark, he or she is unable to recognize which fuse went out of service and would have difficulty restoring the circuit in an emergency. Flipping a switch, for anyone, sighted or not, is much simpler and safer than struggling in the dark, with a flashlight, to find a new fuse and remove the old one, then screw in a new one.