Last
week one of our electricians went to visit a property where the owner
had reported buzzing coming from some sockets. When we arrived at
the property we found a number of potentially dangerous uses of
electricity.
The
property had not had any electrical work carried out recently, but
was in dire need of attention! We have taken some photos so you can
see for yourself what kind of problems we saw. If you have any of
this going on in your home, you need to contact your local qualified
and registered electrician.
As
electricians in South London, we do see each of these scenarios on a
regular basis in peoples homes, but in this one flat, there were a
lot of dangerous electrics!
The
Gallery of crack fizzle and pop!
The
2 wires in one cooker socket!
This is a no no! Here the house holder wired in a double socket which
was being fed from the cooker socket. The double socket was being
used for a kettle.
Daisy
chaining
There was multiple use of daisy chaining throughout the flat – this
is where extension leads are plugged into extension leads. In the
living room, 2 extension leads were in use and in a bedroom, an
extension lead was being fed from a plug adapter which was sat next
to a bed!
Loose
socket on the wall
In the hallway, there was a loose double socket fitted incorrectly
which was used for jobs such as hoovering and charging a motorbike
battery via extension cable!
Heater
in bathroom
An electric heater was located in the bathroom underneath the wash
hand basin. This is of course very dangerous as water could easily
get into the heater causing electrical shock or injury.
No
smoke alarms
The flat also had inadequate smoke alarm protection. A couple of
battery fire alarms had recently been purchased but unfortunately had
only been fixed to the ceiling with double sided sticky tape so after
a week or so they had fallen from the ceiling and were now being
'stored' in the living room amongst paperwork.
In addition, some of the extension leads being used were of an old
variety consisting of metal sockets in a row. This type of extension
lead is not recommended and should be upgraded to a new bar extension
lead.
What to do if you have something similar
Dangerous electrics can cause electrical shock, injury or worse.
They are also a huge fire risk. If you find yourself over reliant on
extension leads, it makes sense to ask an electrician to fit some extra sockets where they're most needed. It is important to not
daisy chain extension leads as this overloads the socket which is
feeding them which could lead to house fire or electrical damage.
Never use electrical sockets that are loose or damaged. You never
know when they could cause a nasty electrical injury.
Never have any form of electric heating in a bathroom near to sources
of water this is very dangerous and an electrical accident could
easily occur.
Most of the bad electric situations above can be easily rectified by
the house holder making small changes. It is important to use
electricity wisely and never take risk or chances.
Always make sure that the electrician you use is both qualified to do
the job and registered before you begin.
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