To reduce the risk of damage to the refractory material, in particular caused by the formation of cracks and corrosion, the invention provides a unit, in particular a melting and/or refining unit and/or a distributor system and/or a channel system, for conductively heatable melts (30), in particular glass melts, which has a tank and at least one electrode (20), the electrode (20) passing through an opening in a wall (10) of the tank so as to be immersed in the conductively heatable melt (30), wherein the unit has an apparatus for reducing the local introduction of heating power into at least one region—adjacent to the electrode (20)—of the wall (10).