Electric Shock

1) I am worried about Electric Shock what can I do to make my home safer?

The photograph above shows a relatively modern consumer unit  / fuse box / electric trip switch box. Most of the circuits have ELECTRIC SHOCK protection built in directly here in the consumer unit however there are two on the left of the picture that do not have a Residual Current Device (RCD) protecting them. It is necessary to have electric shock protection to most circuits in the home these days.

2) What is an RCD?

I’m glad you asked 😊 . These devices are there to save lives. Simple. They sense when someone might be having an electric shock and will then act to turn off the electricity supply and stop the flow of electrical current through the persons body. Amazing, eh? These devices have been around for nearly 100 years.

3) I don’t have these in my consumer unit, is that safe?

These devices are now considered the normal form of protection for all new homes and new electrical installations. They are incredibly common and are easy to install. They come as standard in many modern consumer units and are recommended as the best form of electric shock prevention in the home. If you don’t have these devices in your consumer unit then give us a call. There is a good chance that your home’s electrical system requires some serious upgrading. We would always recommend a full electrical inspection to ascertain the condition of your electrics before we carry out a replacement consumer unit.

There are other methods of achieving ELECTRIC SHOCK protection involving ensuring that everything is well connected to earth, that parts can never become live and so on but really, the easiest, cheapest and best way of ensuring adequate protection is to install RCD’s.

4) What do these things cost and how quickly can you install them?

Typically, the best way to see if you have adequate safety features in your home is to contact us and we can carry out a visual inspection for you. This involves a short site visit and a small written report on our findings. We are always happy to carry this out for you and are usually able to fit you in at short notice for this. We may recommend that you have a much more in-depth inspection carried out if we have any safety concerns and if you consumer unit is very old or lacks RCD protection then this will also likely be a recommendation in lots of cases.

We can carry out a full consumer unit replacement in an emergency over night as we hold plenty of spare stock for just this purpose, our prices are available in the “how much is it” help sheet on our website, if a price is not listed then contact us. Extra charges may apply for emergency or out of hours works but we are always happy to give you an estimate or a quote over the phone so long as you can provide us with some information.

5) I have had shocks from things in my home, can you help?

YES, we absolutely can. We are able to come and investigate this for you. Do not live with electric shocks occurring in your home, let the professionals come and help you. There are many reasons that you may be getting shocks:

• Poorly earthed appliances or circuits
• Earth missing from cables due to poor installation work or damage
• Lack of protective earthing to pipework
• Faulty appliances or connected equipment
• Incorrectly wired sockets or circuits

6) What about protection from electrical fires?

At the moment the best line of defence against any fire in your home is a proper hard wired smoke detector system. If you do not have a hardwired smoke alarm system in your home then I would recommend talking to us about this. We are able to supply, wire and install hardwired smoke detectors that “talk” to each other in the event of a fire.

The other devices that protect against electrical fire are Arc Fault Detection Devices or AFDD for short. These devices will sense any electrical arcing or sparking and then shut off the faulty circuit. They usually also combine ELECTRIC SHOCK protection as well as electrical overload (too many items on at once) and electrical short circuit (serious faults). These devices are brand new to the domestic property market and as such are a little pricey at the moment. We would recommend that when upgrading your consumer unit, you consider having these devices installed. We are also able to do this afterwards if the consumer unit is modern.

7) What things can I do to check that me electrics are safe?

• Ensure that all electrical leads are safely used, free from danger of damage and are not overloaded.
• Do not rely on portable electrical heaters for main source of heating as these can be dangerous if left unattended or if knocked over.
• Check regularly the condition of switches and sockets in your home. These are not meant to last forever and will eventually need replacing.
• Look at your consumer unit or fuse box. How old does it look honestly? Would you put your family in a car that old?
• Have an ELECTRICAL MOT carried out. We are able to carry out a thorough electrical inspection for you to assess the safety and condition of your homes electrical system. 
• Any electrical item that produces heat should be monitored and kept away from anything potentially combustible.
• Make sure that any extension leads are in good condition before you use them.
• Don’t attempt to use plug in appliances in the bathroom unless the manufacturer says you can.

There are many other electrical safety tips that we can give you but if you are worried about ELECTRIC SHOCK then sometimes it is best just to chat to a professional. Give us a call and see how we can help you.