Electric Shock

There are a lot of myths surrounding the possibility of receiving an electric shock in your home. The main protection against you getting shocked is the insulation and correct functioning of your household electrical appliances. If all of your appliances are in good condition you are very unlikely to suffer an electric shock.

The second line of defence is your fuse board or consumer unit, in the event of an electrical surge this protects you from an electric shocks by flipping a fuze and shutting of the electricity of to a circuit if a surge is detected.

The risk of electric shocks is increased if your fuze board is faulty or even if its old. The problem is that old fuze boxes were designed and installed in a time where we had far fewer electrical devices plugged into the circuit. Now we have 5 or 6 devices in the kitchen, another 3 in the living rooms, multiple mobile phones being charged at once, computers running in a home office.

This rapid increase in the number of appliances being used in a circuit can cause the system to overload and fuses trip regularly and in rare cases can lead to electric shocks.

This is usually because people use to many appliances in one socket or they “cable” extension leads which means that they plug multiple extension leads into each other which can leads to electrical shocks or your fuses tripping regularly.

The general rule is that if you have not had any electrical work done in the past 15 years then you probably need a new consumer unit (this should cost in the region of £300). You should also be aware that if you are using more extensions leads than you should you should consider having a rewire including the installation of a few new wall sockets.

If you live in Hertfordshire or North West London give us a call on 0800 002 9547 or get in touch using our contact page here.