Switching on to green tariffs for electric and gas

I've been doing a bit of research on "Green energy tariffs" provided by utility energy suppliers, as they always sounded a bit suspect to me. The idea is that you pay a little more for your energy which offsets your carbon foot print for the gas and electricity that you use as well as investment in to renewable energy generation.


Now I'm all up for being eco friendly and I think we do our bit in our house for the environment and importantly doing our best to keep our energy bills as low as possible, so I wanted to see how much our energy would be on an eco friendly  "green tariff" I found it hard to believe that if I switched to a green tariff it would cost us an massive £136 per year which works out to be 21%. 


I found a great site about our carbon footprint simply called carbonfootprint.com to do some calculations on the energy we use, Now the total energy that we use causes a carbon footprint of 1.43 tonnes of CO2 per year, I then looked at what I'd have to do to 'offset' this energy use (you can see the results here) and I was stunned to find that I could offset our use by donating between £9.98 - £28.52, I know there is more to green energy than just the offsetting but even if I double or triple that, what I could spend through carbonfootprint.com to 'give back' to the environment I'd still be saving money!


Surely if sourcing energy from green and renewable sources utility companies should be providing and working to that goal anyway and not charging the consumer more.
So I've decided I'm going to stay on the tariff I'm currently on and pay to have some trees planted every year so I know where my money is going also this helps wildlife too. This is of course just my opinion and results based on my home.


Paul

Home electrics - What to do if your lights are not working

Last post I spoke about what to do if your electric sockets aren't working today its the lights. This is a simple one to sort out first you need to establish if it's just the lamp (bulb) that has blown, or are all the lights off in which case it would be a fuse has blown or circuit breaker has tripped. to do this try lights in other rooms and/or replace the lamp.


Note: sometimes when a lamp blows it will trip a circuit breaker in modern consumer units.


Most houses have at least 2 circuits for lighting an upstairs and downstairs circuit as this helps minimise inconvenience when a fuse/circuit breaker blows also it splits up the load of all the lights.


If the fuse/ circuit breaker has blown then either replace the fuse wire with 5amp wire* and then check that the light now comes on if it doesn't and the fuse/circuit breaker blows again then you'll need to call an electrician if the fuse/circuit breaker are on but there are no lights then there is a problem with the wiring and you'll need to call an electrician to find the fault.




Keep safe
Paul






* replacing fuse wire with the incorrect size wire or any other material can cause a circuit to not be correctly protected if there is a fault, this is dangerous as the fuse is a protective device and can prevent fires and electric shocks.

Socket outlets not working?

If your sockets/power stops working in your home it can be very inconvenient, this post is all about getting to the bottom of the problem and potentially saving you money.


If it is just one appliance in your home that has stopped working then plug the appliance into another socket in your home and another appliance (a side lamp is usually best) into the original socket to establish if it is the appliance itself or the socket/series of sockets.


Check at the consumer unit/fuseboard if the circuit breaker has tripped or fuse has blown, or in the case of new boards that the Residual Current Device (RCD) has tripped.


If the the breaker of fuse has blown, unplug all appliances and then reset the breaker or rewire/replace the fuse, then one by one plug in all the appliances. If the breaker/RCD won't reset at all or the fuse blows you'll need to get an electrician in to have a look at the circuit, if it does reset you'll need to plug in the appliances one by one to find out which one caused the problem, then you'll either need to have it repaired or replaced.

Can I do my own Electrics?

In short the answer is yes.
In reality I'd say you're better off leaving it to the professionals, certain works are okay such as replacing a socket, but when you get up to installing new circuits, replacing fuse boards for consumer units then the work needs to be tested, certified and registered with building control under part p of the building regulations.


So unfortunately you can do any work you want and I say unfortunately because I've had to go and sort out DIY electrics gone wrong many times with simple things such as a light being installed wrongly.


The issue with electrics is work can be done badly and it will still work, but can be dangerous, It's a pretty good sign that if someone has to ask a question such as 'what cable should I use' then they shouldn't be doing that work.


On top of this most DIYers don't have a van full of tools, the test equipment needed, the insurance if it goes wrong or the experience if they encounter a situation and don't know what to do.


Many DIYer grossly underestimate how long a job will take and then take short cuts they think will be okay in order to finish the job. Also look at it this way an Electrician could do a job a lot quicker because of experience, so where it may take an electrician 1 hour a DIYer may take 2,3,4 hours. Wouldn't that time be better spent with the kids or on a day out with friends and save 'Work' for Mon-Fri.


Just remember that electricity is dangerous and about 11 people each year are killed from shocks, 7501 are injured from electric shocks and there are around 8074 fires caused by faulty electrics. It can be easy to take electricity for granted but as I always say 'just because it works, doesn't mean it's right'.


Be safe

Replacing an electrical fuseboard (Consumer Unit)

This blog post is all about having an electrical fuse board now known as a consumer unit replaced, what you should expect and how much it will cost.

Having an electrical fuseboard replaced is an involved job and not as simple as some may think, however for the trained professional it is a simple job. Replacing a fuse board with a consumer unit is generally a full days work, depending how big the property is, you can expect the work to take this long for a 3 bedroom house, but why?

An Electrical Installation Certificate

Firstly the electrical installation needs to be tested to make sure it's safe and that the new consumer unit won't trip when the circuits are connected it, if there is an electrical fault then this will need to be rectified before the fuse board is replaced. Once the installation has been inspected and tested the board can then be replaced, the tails (wires) feeding the board need to be replace and most times the earthing has to be upgraded too, sometimes the cables for the circuits are too short and then need to be extended which can add more time to the process.Once all this has been done a few more tests need to be done and an electrical installation certificate needs to be completed. 

If you have had or having a fuse board replaced for a consumer unit, and you have been told it will only take a couple of hours then it is possible the job will not be done properly!

How much will it cost?

I once quoted to change a fuse board, when I followed up with the customer to see if he wanted to go ahead with the work he said he'd found someone who could do it cheaper, When I asked how much I was given the reply £210, I was shocked (no pun intended) to hear this as the materials cost alone was was over £120 which meant he was only going to charge £90 for labour/overheads, I asked the customer if he'd asked the electrician (I use the term loosely) how long it would take - he was told it would be about a couple of hours! 

I strongly feel that the customer would not have had a good job done in this instance or been done properly, if you are quoted these sort of figures the I would definitely get a second opinion.

Prices as ever vary from electrician to electrician but I know prices can be around £350 - £650 Which includes Labour, materials, testing and certification. Again it depends the size of the electrical installation a studio flat will be less however a five bed house will be more. 

Regards

Paul

Hertford Electrician

Fuse board or Consumer unit. What are they?

An old fuse box

You probably have an old 'fuse board' that under your stairs that controls all of the electrical circuits (the lighting and electrical sockets) in your home.
These days we install what are now called 'consumer units' which are much safer and simpler to use. Consumer units use Miniature Circuit Breakers (MCBs) rather than a fuse, MCBs are a switching device so we can switch off a circuit if we need to work on it, also they protect circuits from certain types of electrical fault therefore keeping us safe.

MCBs are also more convenient as if they trip they can be easily be reset as opposed to old rewireable fuses in fuseboards need to be re wire, which can be fiddly especially if the lights have gone out and you're trying to do it by torch light! different circuits are protected by different rated MCBs Lighting circuits are generally protected a 6Amp MCB and sockets by 32Amp, showers and cookers are protected by 45Amp MCBs other circuits such as a heater are protected by 16Amp or 20 Amp MCBs.

A new Consumer unit

New consumer units also use a Residual Current Devices (RCD) which trip under certain fault conditions, RCDs are great and save lives you may remember advice that if you are using electrical equipment outside then you should use an RCD unit that you plug into a socket and then plug the equipment into the unit. In recent years the electrical regulations have changed to say that all circuits in a home have to be protected by an RCD. RCDs can be Identified by a 'T' or test button on them, RCDs should be tested by pressing the 'T' button on a regular basis every 3 months.

New consumer units have a big red switch on them this is the main switch this switch controls every circuit that  is covered by the new consumer unit switching it off will cut all power to every circuit.
Regardless of whether you have a fuseboard or consumer unit every circuit/ fuse or breaker should be labeled as to it's function so that if you need to turn it off you won't need to turn off every circuit. With a fuse board if the upstairs sockets trip out you can locate the correct fuse easily to be able to rewire it.

Regards

Paul
Hertford Electrician

Electricians / Electrical Contractor Pricing

When you've never had to use an electrician (or any trades person) before it can be hard to know what to expect in regards to what it is going to cost. Costs vary quite radically from electrician to electrician, I've seen and read reviews on pricing for an hour (normal working hours) of an electricians time starting at £12 right up to £85 and I'm sure there have been cases of electricians charging lots more.

Frankly there are electricians out there that don't have much of a business head (I don't mean this in a derogatory way) and pluck figures out of thin air or are not sure what to charge and undercharge, which will eventually put them out of business.

I'm sure many people when told an electrician charges £50-£60 per hour think this is massively overpriced and they must be very wealthy indeed, this however is not so, when running a business there are many overheads that have to be covered in order to keep the business running and invest for the future, so what are some of these overheads?

• Vehicle costs - Maintenance, Fuel, Repairs, Insurance etc.
• Public Liability and other insurances.
• Tools, machinery and equipment.
• Professional fees - accountants, solicitors, associations etc.
• Advertising and Marketing.
• Premises such as an office.
• Phones
• Employees

This list is not exhaustive and there is also what is know as non-chargeable time such as admin work and going out to look at jobs and quote for them, all cost time and money. I figured when I was going to build a big business and employed staff, that if I'd calculated what I paid myself divided by the hours I put in, I'd probably been on around if not less than minimum wage! Each business is unique there is no set way to run an electrical business and no set overheads, also the skill level of every electrician is different and every job is different. While the electrical regulations are the same for all electricians there are different ways to do almost every job, one electrician may see one way of doing any particular job and another may see it another way, sometimes I've started a job got half way thought and thought it would have been easier if I'd done that a different way.

Of course lets not forget that this is a business and we do want to make a profit too.

Please note that I have based this post on calling out an electrician to do a repair or fault find, for other quoted works, inspection and testing pricing should be different. Personally I like to be upfront about pricing so have posted it on my website.

Remember the old rule though, always get 3 quotes, but don't necessarily go for any particular one based on price, I would base it on how much value you believe you are going to get.

Kind Regards

Paul Jennings