A fuse box and a consumer unit serve the same purpose. They distribute electricity in your house through multiple circuits and instantly turn the power off whenever a power overload occurs on one of the circuits, which 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 position OFF making the faulty circuit easily identifiable. Once the circuit is fixed, the circuit breaker can be switched back on and the power restored.
A fuse box uses fuses instead of circuit breakers. Each fuse contains a wire which will melt if there is an electrical overload and make the circuit trip and switch the power off.