Rewiring

• The serviceable life of the fixed wiring in your property is of the order of 25-35 years
  • If the original wiring is older than that
  or
  • If you are having repeated electrical problems
  or
  • If recommended by a EICR (Electical Installation Condition Report)

  you should think of a complete or partial rewire

Extra Accessories

• When you find you need extra sockets or lights, a light switch or socket moved, you will probably need to call in an electrician

• Not only to ensure it’s safe but also to satisfy Part P regulations (for domestic installations)

• Almost no electrical work these days can be done by you without prejudicing safety regulations
  If there is a death or fire due to an electrical fault, you will be asked for the paperwork (Part P) showing that any alterations have been done to a recognised standard

Consumer Units

• If you don’t have any electrical problems then you may well not notice its existence. It’s only needed if something goes wrong. The consumer unit (or fuse box) is usually located within 3m of the electric meter. It’s one or more boxes which allow you to control different circuits. You might have switches called MCB’s (miniature circuit breakers) for downstairs sockets or upstairs lights for instance.

• Old fuseboxes, of which there are many still in use, have plug-in fuses with a different thickness of fuse wire for each circuit. The only way to make a problem-circuit safe if there’s a fault is to switch everything off, remove the fuse and then switch back on again.

• The best consumer units, and any installed after January 2006, have one or more RCD’s. This is a switch to control one or more circuits. More importantly, a Residual Current Device monitors the current flowing. If more than a trickle goes back to Earth instead of back to Neutral it will trip out. It should trip fast enough to save your life in the case of a fault.

Small Consumer Unit

Medium Consumer Unit

Circuits

• In electrical installations, the wiring is divided into different circuits. For example: downstairs ring main, upstairs lights, cooker, garage, doorbell, shower, smoke detector, intruder alarm, fridge/freezer and so on. This is for convenience. If there is a fault on one circuit so it doesn’t work, the other circuits can still operate. Also if you need to do work on a light fitting or socket for instance you can switch off that circuit while leaving all the others still working.