Making Your Halloween Scary But Safe

Halloween is the season to be scary and each year it is turning into a bigger event in this country, so why not get into the spirit of things by adding some spooky lighting to your own haunted house.

There is some great spooky figurines and lighting ideas to be found on the Internet in preparation for this weekend that we have shared with you below, but it is still important to consider electrical safety when purchasing and decorating your home for Halloween to keep your trick or treater safe.


Ghostly Pathways

Add some dark & spooky scenes to your pathway by using
floodlights as suggested on eHow as they cover a large area with colored light. The right color sets the mood for your display, so plan the look you want and choose accordingly. Blue floodlights add to the ghostly feel of a graveyard scene, notes Halloween Yard Haunter, while red lights enhance a naughty devil theme. Purple lights and red lights help set the mood for a vampire setting. Green lights bring a spooky-faced witch to life. Floodlights get very hot, so make sure they are set up safely away from children, pets and combustible material like dry leaves with no cables causing a trip hazard. It is important that any light you use outside are approved for outdoor use so always check before buying.

Webbed Doorways & Stairs

As recommend on lights4fun why not use novelty cobwebs to your Halloween displays, keep it safe and choose only LED, low voltage or battery powered fairy lights. Perfect around children and no re-lighting flames when the pumpkin is on the door step!


Spooky Pumpkins

Don't use candles in your pumpkin this year and put yourself at risk of a fire hazard, use battery operated tea lights instead. The beauty of battery operated LED candles is that you have the safety of no naked flame, no fire risk, but a realistic animated effect. These LED Tea Lights will never get hot and are perfect around home decorations, fabrics and furniture. We loved these at lights4fun.

No Haunting Overloads

If you need to use an extension lead when decorating your haunted house remember not to overload the circuit by plugging into many lights into it. This can cause the wiring to overheat which can be a potential fire hazard, instead spread the lighting load over different circuits or lessen the lighting load.


Frightful Extension Leads

Replace any cords that are frayed or show signs of wear and avoid a trip hazard by keeping them out of the way where people will be walking. Rain and ground moisture can affect their operation and could cause a dangerous situation as electricity and water do not mix, so keep them inside.

Always roll your extension lead completely out and never leave it partly on the coil otherwise it could suffer heat damage.


Prevent a Freakish Fire

Always turn off your lighting displays when your haunted evening is finished as a short circuit could easily cause a fire.

Always make sure that any portable eletrical equipment that is used in the garden are protected with an RCD.





Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

Part P: Helping to spread the word!

We often receive calls asking us to provide a homeowner with a certificate for electrical installation work that has been completed by another electrician. It’s usually because the electrician they have employed to do the work or one that there builder has brought in, has failed to mention that firstly they require a certificate and secondly that they were not Part P registered in the first place.

Part P of the Building Regulations was introduced to stop this type of thing from happening, unfortunately due to the lack of investment from the government only a small percentage of homeowners have heard of Part P.

Now you may be thinking what is the problem with asking another electrician to provide an electrical certificate to solve the problem? Well the problem is no electrician should certify another electrician’s work as they would have no idea how good that install was, if the electrician was qualified to do the work and if it’s even safe to use. Part P is mainly concerned with the quality of the installation and most of the evidence to show that the installation is correct will be hidden within ceilings and floor voids.

Fulcher Edwards Ltd along with many other registered electrical services companies are doing there bit to help the Electrical Safety Council in spreading the word of Part P. We thought we would do a quick Q&A below to at least get you started on understanding What Part P is all about.

Q. What is Part P exactly?

Part P is the rules set out in the Building Regulations for carrying out electrical installation work in homes and gardens in England and Wales.

Q. How long has Part P been part of the Building Regulations?

In 2005 the Government introduced electrical safety rules into the Building Regulations for England and Wales. This meant that most fixed electrical installation work carried out in homes, must by Law meet the Building Regulations.

Q. Why was Part P introduced?

Part P was introduced to protect the homeowner by reducing the number of deaths, injuries and fires caused by faulty electrical installations. It was also introduced to make life harder for 'cowboys' who leave electrical installations in an unsafe condition.

Q. What does Part P state in the Building Regs?

Part P states that anyone carrying out electrical installation work in a home must make sure that the work is designed and installed to protect people from fire and electrical shocks.

Q. When does Part P apply?

Part P applies to any electrical installation work in the home, garden, conservatory or outbuilding and includes newly-built homes. It also applies to changes made to existing installations, including any parts that have been rewired.

Q. What do I need to do if I need a Part P Certificate?

You have two options;

1)Speak to someone in the Building Control Department of your local Authority before starting any installation works or

2)Employ an electrician is that registered with one of the with one of the Government-approved Part P schemes such as NICEIC, ELECSA or NAPIT

Q. Why does the electrician need to be registered?

If you use a registered electrician then you can expect a safe electrical installation and one that complies with the latest edition of the UK national standard BS7671 requirement.

Q. Who is responsible for making sure electrical work meets the requirements of Part P?

Homeowners and Landlords must be able to prove that all electrical installation work meets the requirements of Part P or they are committing a criminal offence.

Q. How can I prove I my work meets Part P requirements?

When the work has been completed by a registered electrician then you will be issued with an Electrical Installation Certificate or a Minor Works Certificate. You will also receive a Building Regulations Compliance Certificate which will be sent by your local Authorities.

To find out more information regarding Part P take a look at the Communities and Local Government website here and by reading the Electrical Safety Council’s useful leaflet here.

We've Been Very Busy Bees!

Busy busy is what we've been at Fulcher Edwards these last few months (hence the lack of blogging) not that we are complaining at all, but things have been a little hectic to say the least!

We thought we would give you a little insight to the recent goings on in our offices in Waterloo these last few months....


We Are Now ISO9001:2008 Accredited
It all started when we decided before Christmas that it was time to add another accreditation to our belt and we decided an ISO9001 is exactly what we needed to prove to our customers how important quality is to our company.

Apparently we were already over half way there with things that needed to be in place to gain such a logo but with a few extra quality procedures here and there, we passed our audit with flying colours! In fact, not to boast (but we will) we actually did not get one single non-conformity which filled us with an even bigger sense of pride. For those of you not familiar with ISO non-conformities, it is very rare to not get any when an audit takes place.

Our NICEIC Audit
We also had an NICEIC audit which makes sure that we are still worthy of being NICEIC accredited by checking some of our work. Again I am pleased to say we are still a NICEIC approved electrical services company.

Our First Magazine Article
Electrical Times magazine got in touch with us a couple of months ago to ask if they could write a contractor profile on us, "well of course" we said how could we turn such an offer down! The magazines Editor Rodney Jack came to our offices at the Waterloo terminal to interview us, as well as bringing a photographer to take some photos of the FE team. We had a great afternoon and luckily didn’t look too scary in the photos! You can read our article here.

A Brief TV Appearance
One of apprentices, Bobby, decided he wanted to go on Take Me Out on ITV a few months ago to find ‘the one’, personally we think it was to entertain his work colleagues. They had to film a short piece on him being a trainee electrician, so there he was in his FE uniform with his co-worker Neil. Though unfortunately we can now report since the big date, that there will be no FE Wedding.

Lots of New Projects
We have been very busy the last few months with new projects and customers, which we are delighted with. Here's to name a few; The Old Vic, The Marriot Hotel, Claridges Hotel, River Island, China TV, Sue Ryder, Rat Race, The Oxo Tower, TV Globo, Rail Gourmet and The Railway Children.

Safecontractor Accredited
Last year we decided we wanted an accreditation that showed people how important Health and Safety is to Fulcher Edwards, well that was a year ago so we were due for our yearly audit. We have since submitted all information required to Safecontractor and are quietly confident that they will be happy to let us keep our logo. We will of course update you further once we know more.

What Next?
We are in the process of creating a newsletter for our customers so stay posted on our website so you can sign up to it too for helpful advice for homeowners and businesses.

We will also be looking at the next accrediatation we would like to achieve and maybe a website facelift over the next few months.

Now things have settled down a little, we are hopeful that our blogging services should now resume to normal once again. Who knows, we may even add a picture blog too! But for now I think a well earned cup of tea is needed before we start anything.

To Pay or Not To Pay, That is The Question! Though Surely it Shouldn't Be Should it?

After a very interesting conversation on Twitter the other day with Roberta Ward (@RobertaWard ) Keith Kelly (@pagroupuk) and Hanna Coleman (@DREAMWALLS) it prompted me to write a blog on the joys of receiving payments as a business in these current times.

Now this not being paid on time malarkey has always been there I know, but this last 18 months have been very trying indeed, some people just don't want to part with there money even though a good job has been done. Some companies have been put out of business because of it and I am constantly looking at ways to reduce it as I am sure a lot of companies are.

Maybe I am old school with my views but I never understand why a person or business would have no intention of paying for a service they have requested? Especially if they are happy with the outcome. Perhaps it’s about how far a person/company will go? I am no credit angel believe me, but I’ve never been that person to not pay a bill until I am threatened to be cut off for example, but I know for some people this is no big deal to them.

A lot of people think Commercial companies would be our problem payers but to be honest, with us its mainly Domestic customers at the moment. Don’t get me wrong some Commercial companies are difficult to get payment from and our Solicitors have to give us a helping hand sometimes, but this delay in payment is usually due to a chain of people giving approval of a payment or waiting for a signing of a cheque/BACS run.

Saying that, last year we had a company owe us thousands of pounds of work and they went into liquidation. Due to the amount of money they owed we were at the bottom of their very long list, so we basically had to write it off which no-one wants to do of course. The worst bit of all was there sister company contacted us just after Christmas who we had also done work for at the same time, to say how they had misplaced their certificates we had sent them and could they have another copy? We couldn't believe the nerve they had to call us!

Maybe it's the payment methods that we offer our customers that makes us prone to non-payers? We don’t use a credit card machine yet as we can not justify the costs involved at the moment with how many domestic customer's we have. We take payment after works are complete which is accepted by cash, cheque or a 7 day invoice which in some cases is the only option (landlords for example). We are however looking at Paypal at the moment also as another option and to make it easier for our customers to pay us.

The biggest debate we have in our office is how far do we go before saying “we would like payment first please” without panicking people into thinking we’re a ‘dodgy company’ that wont give our customers their electrical certificates until they pay us. My Managing Director has very strong views personally and professional about not paying trade’s people upfront until all works are complete and I do understand his point but at the same time if we give out or complete all the information required from us, how is payment guaranteed if the customer has everything they need?

This is not an everyday problem for us, a lot of our customers are good payers but there the odd few that can cause worry and concern with how much they owe us and what affect that will have on us. 9 times out of 10 a Solicitors letter does do the trick but still time and cost is involved in this process that could be used elsewhere.

I would really be interested into hearing people’s views on this topic, whether you are an electrician or own a company and how you avoid such issues or even if you are customer and what payment terms you would expect from a service like ours?

Sorry if I sound like I am having a rant but in these current times cash flow is what keeps my families business afloat so it is a subject very close to my heart and I am very passionate about keeping Fulcher Edwards Ltd going for another 30 years at least!

Our Adventures in 2010

The Christmas decorations are down, the mulled wine bottle is empty (though still waiting for the recycling dustman to collect!) and the last of remaining mince pies has been eaten. Another Christmas has left us as quickly as it arrived and 2010 is done and dusted and my, what a year it has been for Fulcher Edwards Ltd!

2010 was a hard year and like most companies we worked ‘our butt’s off’ harder than ever before, I’m pleased to say we made it through the other side but it was not by far an easy ride. We went from months of pure craziness where we contemplated taking on more staff, to months of wondering if we would come out of it without making any redundancies. I’m pleased to say we didn’t have to make any.

We did a lot more marketing last year than ever before and learnt a few valuable lessons along the way, good and bad. 2010 was very much trial and error for our marketing campaign as in previous years it was never something we had to do on a large scale to gain more business. We started our own Facebook page last year as well as our very own blog and we even jumped on the Twitter bandwagon to interact with our customers, I admit both are very time consuming, but it’s been very worth it!

Twitter has been great with connecting with other electricians like Stirling Electrical in Scotland @StirlingElect, electrical suppliers like Sparks Electrical in North London @sparksdirect and other electrical tweeps like Gary Pratten @mylocalelectric a Publisher for the My Local Trades network of online magazines. We have learnt a lot from these industry professionals and the rest of our Twitter family. I feel like everyone we interact with on Twitter either by our business account @FEelectricians or my personal one @FulcherEdwards are all incredibly helpful and I wish I could thank everyone personally in this blog post but I fear it will take me well and truly over the recommended 500 characters! You all know who you are I’m sure : )

We gained a lot of new customers in 2010 despite ‘the recession’ some have been very good to us by calling us time and time again throughout the year and even recommending us to other companies, friends or family. Like many other companies though there were a few chancers, time wasters and some terrible payers also. On the whole though the good outweighed the bad and in this type environment you have to take some risks to succeed.

We were lucky to be involved with some of the projects happening at our home, the Eurostar terminal in Waterloo Station last year too. The Ark Charity Dinner where we even got to help out The Killers! The Railway Children production, London Fashion Week and TV drama Luther were some others. Who knows what the terminal will be used for this year but one things for sure it’s nice to have some life back in the place.

Who knows what 2011 will bring, our first week back in January has already seen a VAT increase, calls from new customer’s as well loyal ones and even calls from ones who we quoted months and months that are now ready in getting the works done.
I don’t doubt that it will be an equally challenging year ahead however I feel like Fulcher Edwards Ltd is that little bit wiser now (or maybe that’s just me!) We may still get bruised and battered along the way but I think that will make us an even better company at the end of the day.

Happy New Year everyone, here’s to a prosperous 2011!

Electrical Safety When Working From Home

Most of us wish we had the option to work from home from time to time, well I do anyway. The thought of being able to roll out of bed a little later, to have a leisurely breakfast, hey maybe cook myself some scrambled eggs on toast and then casually turn on my laptop in my PJ's, all in the privacy of my own home sounds oh so great to me!

I think you would all agree that for that very same reason of why I would love to work from home is also a very good reason why I shouldn't! Don't get me wrong I am hard working person yet I see home as my place to relax so my work ethic may turn into more of a laid back affair which would probably turn into me not achieving very much in my day, so really and truly I am better getting up super early and facing the London commute like most people do and working from our Waterloo office.

For those of you that do have that privilege of working at home (and are obviously more disciplined than me) the team at Fulcher Edwards wondered how many homeworkers with electrical equipment provided by there employers, have some type of electrical maintenance in place or if there just left to get on with things? You know the 'well it works' attitude that some companies tend to suffer with unfortunately.

Although the home is the responsibility of a homeworker they are only actually responsible for their own equipment which is purchased by themselves.

Employers should have steps in place like the ones below which are recommended by the HSE to keep there homeworkers safe and prevent harm or injury, ensuring that all electrical equipment is turned off before.

1) Check that plugs are not damaged
2) Check the domestic electrical systems are adequate for electrical equipment
3) Check plugs are correctly wired and maintained
4) Check that the outer covering of the cable or wire is gripped where it enters the plug or the equipment
5) Check that the outer corner of the equipment is not damaged, for example look for loose parts or screws
6) Check leads, wires or cables for damage to the outer covering
7) Check for burn marks or staining that suggests overheating
8) Repair electrical equipment that may cause harm or injury to the homeworker
9) Check that there are no trailing wires; if there are, tuck them out of the way,
for example under a desk or table to prevent accidents

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA) places duties on employers, self-employed people and employees. Under this law employers have a duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of their employees, this also includes homeworkers. The safe use of electricity at work is covered by the Electricity At Work Regulations 1989.

Although homeworkers have a slightly different set up, there safety is equally as important as workers in an office environment and electrical maintenance needs to be in place regarding there equipment such as portable appliance testing. The type of maintenance procedures employers have in place will depend on whether hazards are low or high risk.

If you work from home then why not speak with your employer about what procedures are in place as maintaining your electrical equipment is important for a number of reasons, mainly to avoid electrical faults as they can cause a fire.

If you are a homeworker we would be interested to hear what electrical safety procedures your employer has in place?

Maintain Your Emergency Lighting As One Day You May Just Need It!

A week rarely goes by without the team at Fulcher Edwards being slightly concerned by the lack of interest some companies have in maintaining there Emergency Lighting in their building, yet it plays such a major part should an emergency like a power failure occur. Though some companies will happily take our advice as they were not aware of there full responsibilities before, however some just push it to one side.

Only a couple of weeks ago we had to write an letter to a company basically reiterating from a previous conversation we had with them months before of the dangers they face not having enough emergency lighting in there building. We are not talking about a small company either (not that should make any difference if it was) but they have hundreds of people entering there premises everyday who are members of the general public. Heaven forbid if an incident were to occur, in our expert opinion, it could be disastrous. As usual expense normally compromises safety, even more so these days and we are unable to force companies into taking our advice. We have still had no instructions from that company were afraid to say.

The British Standards (BS5266) recommends that emergency lighting systems be regularly serviced by 'competent' persons, which means these being persons with the necessary knowledge, skills and training to undertake emergency lighting servicing procedures.

The Purpose of Emergency Lighting?

1) To illuminate escape route signs in a building to allow for safe movement and evacuation in a emergency such as a mains failure

2) They ensure that fire alarm call points and fire equipment provided along the escape routes can be readily located and used

3) To permit operations concerned with safety measures

Regular testing in your premises ensures that your emergency lighting system remains reliable at all times and should an emergency occur then this type of lighting ensures that people can evacuate a building safely.

How Regular is Regular?
The British Standards recommends routine testing should be carried out as follows and recorded in a log book:

Daily
This requires a visual check to ensure that emergency lighting systems are operating correctly and that indicators are working. This should be carried out by the 'responsible person' delegated by a company. Any faults should be logged and corrected ASAP.

Monthly
All luminaries should be checked for signs of damage or disrepair. All emergency lights should be briefly tested to ensure that they operate in the event of mains electricity supply failure. This will usually be carried out by the 'responsible person'. Again any faults should be logged and corrected ASAP.

Annually
A full system inspection and duration test of the emergency lights should be performed by a 'competent person' who will log the details, rectify any faults and provide your company with certification for your fire safety records.

Who is a Competent Person?
This is a person who has the necessary skills, training and knowledge to perform emergency lighting maintenance and servicing. They are qualified, experienced in emergency lighting, registered with a government approved body(such as NICEIC) and comply with the British Standards. Your chosen electrical services company or electrician will also be able to advice if all lighting and exit signs are up to date with current legislation and are adequate for the purpose intended.

Who is a Responsible Person?
This is a designated member of staff in a company who can quickly and easily perform monthly checks and record information in a log book. They also need to be punctual with there tests each month and report any faults immediately to the chosen company who manage your emergency lighting system.

Why is it so Important?
Maintaining your emergency lighting and arranging regular testing in your company, ensures your emergency lighting remains fully functional during an emergency where a electrical failure may occur, lights up exit routes and signs for the specified duration.

We maintain emergency lighting for a number of commercial clients in London as well as charities, landlord's properties, rail depots, shops, restaurants & bars. Our aim with this blog post is to make businesses aware of how important it is to maintain there emergency lighting. It plays such an important role for people entering your premises who are unaware of the layout during an emergency; it really could be a lifesaver!