Electrical Repair Service in Liverpool

1) Emergency Call-out⚡📞

We were asked to attend the home of a customer that had found our details on Google. He needed our “ELECTRIC REPAIR SERVICE” for his consumer unit. He had been having problems with his sockets in his home and the consumer unit had been tripping repeatedly. 

In this case the consumer unit had a circuit breaker / trip switch that kept tripping as there was too much being used on the sockets, too many things plugged in and being used at the same time. 

The circuit breaker / trip switch was too small for the number of sockets and size of house. So, what can be done? Well, install a bigger circuit breaker? Potentially yes, although in this case, the cables were too small to allow this. 

2) What had happened?

At some point, the electrics in his home had been upgraded with a new fuse box. This is great, it’s always a good idea to get your electrics updated with more modern features that keep you and your family safe. During the upgrade, electricians need to inspect and test the electrical installation to ensure that they are carrying out the work safely and that the new equipment will not endanger anyone. During this testing, the electrician found a break on the circuit and as such, they had no choice but to put a smaller circuit breaker in instead of the larger one.

3) Is a break on a circuit dangerous?

Many plug sockets are wired on a ring (Ring Final Circuit). When they are wired this way there is essentially a large loop of cable that leaves the fuse box and feeds every electrical plug socket in your home before the cable returns to the fuse box creating a ring. When this ring becomes broken a dangerous situation can occur. 

Inside an electrical cable, there are three copper wires or conductors. These are Line (Live), Neutral and Circuit Protective Conductor (Earth). Now, each of these wires needs to leave and return to the fuse box without becoming broken (losing continuity). They can break for several reasons and the most common is a loose connection in the back of a socket or junction box. A lot of people can undertake DIY and cause problems with electrical wiring as well and this does cause issues especially with Ring Final Circuits. 😊

4) What happens when a ring final circuit is broken?

When a conductor is broken along its length it can no longer carry the amount of electrical current that the circuit was designed for, hence the circuit needs to be downrated to allow it to continue to operate safely. Ideally, the break should be found by undertaking electrical fault finding and testing but, in some cases, there is no option but to down-rate the circuit. 

In the case of this job, the previous electrician had looked and couldn’t find it so had to down-rate the circuit to make it safe when he changed the consumer unit. This led to other problems…

There was now far too much demand on the circuit for the size of the, now reduced, circuit breaker. The circuit breaker was continually overloading and tripping the power off. Irritating yes, inconvenient also and more importantly and inevitably, circuit breaker failure was occurring! 

5) What did we do?

We carried out some testing with the homeowner’s assistance and turned-on typical loads and appliances that were in use most of the time and using our test equipment measured how much electrical current was flowing in the circuit. 

Very quickly we established that the circuit was sitting at its maximum and beyond most of the time and this had led to regular tripping of the circuit breaker and eventual failure. 

The homeowner had spare circuit breakers left from when the previous electrician had swapped the consumer unit for them and we managed to install this for them there and then. We carry many spares on the van so these types of emergencies can be dealt with at any time of day or night. 

6) What are the options for a repair?

In this case, there are a few options:

• Leave it as it is: Not ideal as this will happen again and constant overload is not good for the cabling or the electrical system.
• Find the break in the cable: Ideally this would be the best option as it solves the issue and lets us restore the circuit to its full power handling capability. This could be a pain as access to every socket is needed and furniture would have to be moved, then if the break could not be found behind a socket, then the floorboards would need to be lifted in order for the break to be found in the floor cavity. A potentially time consuming, costly, and disruptive repair. 
• Rewire the circuit: Not the best option but this does guarantee to fix the issue first time. The costliest and most time-consuming option and the last resort for us always. We prefer to fix and make good rather than replace where possible. 

We do our best to ensure our “ELECTRICAL REPAIR SERVICE” is efficient and good value and this means considering all options open to the customer whilst ensuring repairs are carried out safely and in accordance with BS7671 safety wiring regulations. 

It is not always possible to repair older wiring installations and occasionally rewiring is necessary. 

7) What does an Electrical Repair Service cost?

Our costs for known issues, typical jobs, fault finding and electrical repair services can be found on our costs page. If you are unsure what your project will cost then please contact us to confirm.
https://www.electricalfaultsfixed.co.uk/costs