We are all familiar with the normal smells in our home and very occasionally there can be something new which we are not used to.
It is important not to ignore a new smell that we have not experienced before. Electricity is a dangerous thing. We cannot sense, see, hear or smell it under normal circumstances.
When things begin to go wrong with an installation, a symptom can be a smell of burning. This can originate from almost anywhere in the installation and is best recognised as a ‘fishy smell’. Commonly there are areas where this will occur more than others. The consumer unit also referred to as fuse box, fuse board, electric box and so on, is a common area where burning smells can originate from.
The consumer unit contains many electrical components performing various different duties and mostly these components go about their job day after day unhindered and happy to quietly keep us safe.
What can happen over a period of time is that connections can become loose inside the consumer unit. When this happens there forms a high resistance connection causing cabling, copper busbar connectors and other components to become very warm. This heat that is generated causes a problem for electric current as it becomes more problematic for current to flow and for components and cabling to get rid of their heat. Heat causes more resistance which causes more heat……….. OH NO!
Very quickly things can spiral out of control and cause burning, melting, blackening and even small fires.
Shower switches and circuits are also a common area for issues as they are much higher-powered circuits than say, lighting circuits and it is a common call for us to attend someone’s home when the shower stops working, the shower switch is faulty or there is a smell of burning in the bathroom.
The best way to avoid these kinds of issues is prevention.
Whilst no-one can predict when issues might occur, we can undertake some maintenance to assist in the prevention of any problems and to highlight any potential problems on the horizon. Just like a car needs an MOT test every year, our homes can benefit from an occasional check to see what is happening in the walls, floors and behind electrical switches and sockets. We are always happy to investigate a burning smell for you but if you prefer to be ahead of that then we are also happy to come and carry out a thorough inspection and test for you on your homes electrical system.
The photograph shows the start of real problems in this consumer unit. The connections here have been either overloaded, under mechanical strain or have been loose. Other loose connections have been found in this consumer unit and as such have caused melted cables and serious fire risk. The homeowner was aware of a smell of burning but could not find out where it was coming from.
We carry out a lot of emergency call outs, insurance emergencies, fault finding and inspections. We are able to pinpoint issues and advise you of any looming problems withing your homes wiring.
Sometimes it is worth some peace of mind, don’t worry just call us:
