linguistic:translation, quality:correction
North America

In North America, fuses were used in buildings wired before 1960. These Edison base fuses would screw into a fuse socket similar to Edison-base incandescent lamps. Ratings were 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 amperes. To prevent installation of fuses with an excessive current rating, later fuse boxes included rejection features in the fuse-holder socket, commonly known as Rejection Base (Type S fuses) which have smaller diameters that vary depending on the rating of the fuse. This means that fuses can only be replaced by the preset (Type S) fuse rating. This is a North American, tri-national standard (UL 4248–11; CAN/CSA-C22.2 NO. 4248.11-07 (R2012); and, NMX-J-009/4248/11-ANCE). Existing Edison fuse boards can easily be converted to only accept Rejection Base (Type S) fuses, by screwing-in a tamper-proof adapter. This adapter screws into the existing Edison fuse holder, and has a smaller diameter threaded hole to accept the designated Type S rated fuse.

Some companies manufacture resettable miniature thermal circuit breakers, which screw into a fuse socket. Some installations use these Edison-base circuit breakers. However, any such breaker sold today does have one flaw. It may be installed in a circuit-breaker box with a door. If so, if the door is closed, the door may hold down the breaker's reset button. While in this state, the breaker is effectively useless: it does not provide any overcurrent protection.

In the 1950s, fuses in new residential or industrial construction for branch circuit protection were superseded by low voltage circuit breakers.

Fuses are widely used for protection of electric motor circuits; for small overloads, the motor protection circuit will open the controlling contactor automatically, and the fuse will only operate for short circuits or extreme overload.