If your electrical supply is going off and back on, then don’t assume it’s a power cut.
If this is happening to you then you should call 105 to check with them if it is a power cut in your area. They have the most up to date information to give you regarding the electricity supply from the power stations to your home. If there is no power cut in your area, then you may have a problem.
The photograph shows a piece of electricity suppliers’ equipment that we all have in our homes. We can see that one of the wires has turned black at the top. This is likely a loose wire that has cause overheating and blackening of the cable. This is a potentially dangerous situation. A fire could be imminent. If there is an issue with this piece of equipment, then it is best to call 105 and tell them there is a problem. They are normally very helpful and quick in emergency situations like this.
If you have smoking electrics from anywhere at all in your house, then you must turn your power off and call us straight away. We will come and assist you to put the problem right and at least make safe to prevent further damage and possible fire. It is alarmingly common for higher powered circuits to develop problems over time that results in melting, burning, and smoking. Normally electric showers and electric cookers are the biggest problems. Circuits that power car charges are also high powered and can develop problems. These issues can be prevented by ensuring that your home electrical system is tested thoroughly every so often by an electrician. We can carry out this type of testing for you so do not worry.
In certain older types of wiring, we have seen similar issues. There was a short period where aluminium wiring was used in homes during a copper shortage. This type of wiring did an okay job of carrying power to our sockets and switches throughout our homes however there was a problem with it. To create a good electrical connection at the fuse board, sockets, switches, and other electrical accessories we have terminals that rely on screws to apply pressure and make a strong electrical and mechanical connection. When copper is tightened into these terminals it does not distort very much and generally maintains its shape. When aluminium is tightened in the same manner it normally crushes easily which means that it is not easy to get a good tight connection and the risk of the connection being loose is very high.
Shower terminals can be susceptible to wear and tear as many people turn the pull cord shower isolator on and off many times each week. This wear and tear take its toll on the terminals and switching mechanism wearing it out. When this happens the internal connections inside the shower isolator become worn and make poorer contact each time. This leads to overheating and melting of cables and terminals. Combine this with the all-too-common situation of a high powered shower on an under rated cable and we regularly see smoking electrics from shower cables and switches.
The important thing to remember is that if there is any type of electrical burning, smell of burning or discolouring of your electrical accessories then you must call. It is not worth the risk of leaving a potentially dangerous situation to continue to worsen. We are available for a chat during normal working hours each and every day. We can normally attend emergency callouts 24 hours a day as well so if there is an emergency in your home or you require our attendance then please call.
There are many instances where we have attended properties and found that the electrical burning smell is coming from a consumer unit / fuse board. When this happens there is usually a loose connection somewhere inside the consumer unit and this can cause excessive heat along with power loss and electrical burning. If you have been unfortunate enough to suffer issues like this inside your consumer unit then we will do our absolute best to safely repair the unit. We make a professional engineering judgement on each case deciding whether or not the unit as a whole is salvageable. There are times when the damage is too extensive, and the entire unit has to be replaced. Occasionally it can be simply a circuit breaker that requires replacement, and this can be an economical yet safe repair to undertake. We carry a range of spares on board and in our lock up so that we always have the right part available at short notice. There are times when we are unable to provide a spare part for a consumer unit repair despite perhaps a simple repair being ok. Some consumer units are very old, and parts are now obsolete meaning scarcity of supply. Other times we find that consumer units were not produced by the manufacturer for very long and therefore spares are rare!
We do carry spare consumer units in the event of an emergency we can often replace the unit there and then if needed.
All the situations where smoking electrics can often be picked up in advance before they happen. The IET (Institute of Engineering and Technology) recommend that private domestic homes should have an inspection carried out every 10 years. So, if your installation is over 10 years old then you are likely due an inspection. There are sometimes stickers on your consumer unit indicating when the last inspection was carried out and when the next one is due. We are not saying that we can prevent this situation from occurring, but our test equipment will tell us if there are loose connections, our visual inspection as part of the thorough test will let us cast our expert eye over your home and flag anything that is not quite right!
The important thing is not to worry and not to wait. If you have an issue such as electrical accessories that are smelly, fishy, discoloured, burnt, cracked, loose then you really should act before it gets worse. Feel free to contact us for a FREE quote to inspect your home.
