No Lights Working In House

1) I have no lights working what has happened?💡

If you have “NO LIGHTS WORKING IN HOUSE” then something has happened and there will be a few things to check in order to try and establish what has happened. 

✅Check your electrical box / consumer unit / fuse box (like the one pictured). If there is a switch in the down position then it is possible that a fault has tripped the circuit breaker or an RCD switch. Try to reset the breaker but do not do this more than once. If the breaker or RCD switch goes off again then constantly resetting can cause it to fail. 

✅If you have no switches down at your consumer unit then check and see if your sockets are also not working. It could be that not just your lights have gone off, there may be a general power cut. If you think this is the case then call 105 to speak to your local electricity network provider. They will tell you if there are any known issue with the power supply coming in to your home from the street. 

✅If you have tried both of the above and had no success then it may be that you have loose connections somewhere on the light circuit.  This is the time to call an electrician as there is nothing safe left for you to do. An electrician will be needed to attend and to carry out some electrical fault finding to establish what has happened and pin point the location of the fault.

2) What can cause lights to fail?💭

Water Ingress When water enters into the electrical system, absolute havoc can ensue. Switches can trip at the consumer unit; cables can spark and ark causing cable damage and there can be a risk of fire in serious cases.
Rodents That is right, these little critters love a good chew on cabling. We have come across situations where a mouse or rat has chewed a cable and caused a whole circuit to fail. In these situations, your electrician will carry out fault finding and testing to find where the damage to the cable is. 

Faulty Consumer unit or components A Consumer unit contains many different wires and switches which carry out several different functions. If there are problems inside the consumer unit either with the wiring or with the switches then this can cause the lighting circuit to fail. There can be loose connections that mean things are not working properly or switch devices failing. 

Accidental Damage When cables become damaged, they will often cause issues at the consumer unit or on the circuit that they supply. All sorts of accidental damage can occur to wiring and mean that circuits then fail. Cables in lofts are particularly susceptible to damage when things are stored up there, heavy feet and loft ladders can cause pressure point on wiring and internal damage to cables that may not be seen from the outside.

3) So, what do I do to sort the problem out?🤔

If you have tried the list at the start of this article then there is not much more that you can do to solve the situation safely yourself. If the situation needs to be investigated immediately then you should call an emergency electrician to attend and carry out the necessary testing and fault finding. If the issue is NOT an emergency and can wait until normal working hours or even a few days or more then you should email / call the emergency electrician during working hours and explain the situation. 

Non- emergency calls are almost always cheaper to attend to than emergency ones. Fault finding in the dark is not ideal even with many torches so if the electrician can attend during daylight hours to fix the problem its often a win-win. 

“NO LIGHTS WORKING IN HOUSE” may or may not be urgent, TO YOU and therefore you may decide it can or cannot wait. 

4) How do I find a good emergency electrician?🌟

Get on the internet and search for one. Check out their business profile, their website, and their Google reviews. A good company should have a simple but easy to navigate effective website full of helpful information for customers. The company should have some great Google reviews, the more the better and the higher the start rating the better. It is important to read some of the Google reviews though to ensure that real people have left them and to get a feel for the company. 

5) The company want money up front, is this, okay?💰

Many companies require a deposit when booking a service these days and this is normal. Booking seats, paying for groceries (or anything at all) online and especially dispatching emergency tradespersons. Paying a deposit reassures the company that they can book your job in next, or the tradesperson that they can get changed, re-load their van and drive over to you. We require the first hour paid in advance before we will book you in. It gives you peace of mind we are coming and will not abandon your job for a better one and means we do not let other customers down by booking in more work than we can service. 😊

6) How do I pay an emergency electrician?💳

Many companies accept BACS, credit card or debit card. This is the only sensible way to pay especially for the first hour of attendance or call out fee if the company have one. Once the electrician is on site, most tradespersons and companies should be able to accept Cash, Credit or Debit Card and BACS whilst on site as well. 

7) What should I do before the electrician arrives?✅

To save time and money make sure that the electrician has good, clear, and safe working access to your electrical box / consumer unit / fuse box as they will need to get to it and probably carry out some electrical testing on the circuits inside the box. 

Also make sure that they can access each of your lights in your home, clear furniture if necessary as they may need to inspect the wiring behind each light. Light switches too, try and make sure that they can access all the light switches in your home to investigate the problem. 

8) How long will it take to fix the problem?⏱️

Most electrical issues are fixed or patched up temporarily within the first hour. If your house is particularly large, has fancy light fitting that are tricky to disconnect and reconnect or perhaps has lots of things in the way of the electrician then things may take a while longer. 

If the fault is particularly tricky to find or requires loft access then it may take a couple of hours to sort out. Most electricians should be able to make safe and restore power to other circuits if not the affected circuit very quickly. If the fault appears to require further works or there is substantial damage then your electrician will probably give you a quote to repair rather than fix the issue there and then as materials may be required.

9) How much will it cost to fix no lights?💸

Fixing a problem like “NO LIGHTS WORKING IN HOUSE” can vary in price. Until testing and investigation begins on your electrical installation the electrician will have no idea of the extent of any damage, the cost of repair or what has caused the lights to trip off. Ensure that you use an electrician that regularly carries out fault finding and repairs as they will have the best chance of finding and fixing the issue rather than rewiring the problem. 

If you need a further idea on costs then check out our costs page on the website: https://www.electricalfaultsfixed.co.uk/costs

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