Lighting Installations

If you are the homeowner and it is not a rental property it is suggested every 10 years, however if you have any concerns seek professional advice

Landlords or Holiday Home owners are required to get properties electrics tested every 5 years as standard. But if you are a landlord you are also required to get them tested at the beginning of any new tenancy.

Landlords are require to put a smoke detector on every storey of a rental property and a CO detector in every room where there is a working fireplace or solid fuel appliance.

PAT testing stands for Portable Appliance Testing it refers to anything electrical in your property which can be unplugged and moved. Eg. Fridge, hair dryer, printer, phone charger, juicer etc. It is suggested that PAT testing is carried out annually in all work places, holiday lets, residential lets, hotels, etc.

An Electrical Installation certificate is done for a new installation or an addition, an Electrical Installation Condition Report is a report on the current wiring in a building without making any alterations to it mainly to check on its “condition”.

A standard bedroom should have a minimum of 3 sockets, although we would always suggest that the 3 sockets should be fitted as twin, giving the user more flexibility and preventing the likelihood of using dangerous extensions. In other parts of the house, socket numbers can vary depending on room size and function. If you have any further questions call the office 01796 472263

Yes, under BS7671 IEE Wiring Regulations all socket outlets are required to be protected by a 30mA RCD. This acts as a safety mechanism in case of an accident the RCD automatically shuts off the power.

An RCD is a residual current device designed to protect against electrocution and electrical fires but cutting of the power supply when it senses a leakage of an electrical current from a circuit. An RCD monitors electric currents in one or more circuits or in an individual item by monitoring the live and neutral wires. These two wires normally have an equal value but if a fault occurs and the electricity it is monitoring changes to a different path this would trigger the RCD to switch off the electricity automatically. For example, cutting through a cable with a power tool, providing the power tool was plugged into a socket or a circuit which was RCD protected the power would switch off and eliminate the chances of injury from electrocution. RCD protection also offer protection against electrical fires.

The main form of RCD protection is in your consumer unit. The number of circuits being protected can vary and be altered to suit your needs when an installation is being carried out. You may only want to RCD protect your downstairs circuits. You can also get RCD protected plug in sockets than are transportable, you can plug them in to any socket in your house, offering you protection whenever and wherever you need it, or you can have an external socket made RCD so you are always protected when using any gardening equipment.