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Whilst cutting the lawn, hedge trimming etc I haven't been using one of those circuit breaker things that plug in to a normal socket.
The wiring in the house is less than 5 yrs old so the main consumer unit should be pretty good, but will it work like a socket one?
I remember my brother cutting through a cable with a hedge trimmer a few years back with a circuit breaker in place (but old main fuses ie wires) and it made a huge bang and a big flash of light!
If your consumer unit had breakers them you don't need it. No harm in having it though.
You want an RCD in there somewhere. Either in the consumer unit or a plug in one.
If your CU is 5 years old, then you should be covered for all of the socket outlets by an RCD in the CU.
Plugging one at the end of the hedge trimmer will not usually help, if there was a fault, then either the RCD at the socket,or the one in the CU could trip.
Also, cutting through a hedge trimmer/mower cable does not always trip an RCD. They sense a current going to earth, and trip within 40mS. However, most outdoor tools are double insulated, so do not have an earth wire in the cable. When you cut through a cable, the blades move so fast that the fault between live/line and neutral is so quick that they sometimes don't even trip the circuits breaker, which is there for over-current protection.
When this happens, the biggest danger is picking up the connected, cut, end, and touching it to find it is still live. The RCD will trip then, as the current will be going through you to earth.
Always use some form of RCD. It wont stop you getting a shock if there is a fault, but it will 99.9% ensure that you don't get electrocuted.
Also dont forget,that power tools sometimes revolve for a time after the power is lost, my neighbour took the tops off her fingers after cutting the cable on her flymo as she picked it up from the lip, and luckily she didnt get electrocuted as well.
Portable plug in RCDs, work well and theyre a back up, just incase the one in the house fails to work properley.