Advice

Electrical advice guides

Written by a working NICEIC electrician, not a copywriter. Straight answers on EICRs, landlord duties, consumer units, EV chargers, rewires and the faults people ring us about most.

What is an EICR, and do I need one?

An EICR is a health check for the fixed wiring in a building. It is not a formality and it is not a quick look round: it is a measured inspection that ends in a written verdict of satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

EICR codes explained: C1, C2, C3 and FI

Most confusion about EICRs comes down to four codes. Once you know what they mean, an unsatisfactory report stops looking like a disaster and starts looking like a list of jobs.

How much does an EICR cost, and what affects the price?

There is no single national price for an EICR, because the work is driven by how many circuits there are and how easy they are to reach. Here is what actually moves the number.

Landlord compliance

Landlord electrical safety duties, in general terms

This is a general overview, not legal advice. The rules are set out by government and enforced by your local authority, and the official guidance linked below is the final word on your specific situation.

Do I need to upgrade my consumer unit?

A consumer unit upgrade is one of the most frequently oversold jobs in the trade. Sometimes it is exactly right. Sometimes it is an expensive way of avoiding the real problem.

How much does an EV charger installation cost, and what grants are available?

Most EV charger quotes vary for one reason: the distance and difficulty between your consumer unit and where you want the charger. Everything else is comparatively predictable.

Signs your house needs rewiring

Full rewires are disruptive and expensive, so it is worth knowing which warning signs genuinely point to one and which have cheaper explanations.

Why does my RCD keep tripping?

An RCD tripping is not the RCD failing. It is the RCD detecting current leaking to earth and cutting the supply, which is exactly what it exists to do. The job is finding out where the leak is.

Electrical safety certificate: what it is and what you get

Almost nobody rings up asking for an Electrical Installation Condition Report. They ring asking for an electrical safety certificate, and in nearly every case that is the same document.

Unsatisfactory results

What happens if an EICR fails?

Unsatisfactory means at least one C1, C2 or FI was recorded. It does not mean the house has to be rewired, and in most cases the work needed is a good deal smaller than people fear when they read the word fail.

Timing and access

How long does an EICR take, and what access is needed?

The honest answer is two to four hours for most homes, and the single biggest variable is not the size of the property but how many circuits have been added to it over the years.

HMO and commercial

EICR for HMOs and commercial premises

The test methods are the same. What changes is the scope, the interval, the amount of evidence expected and how much coordination the visit takes before anyone opens a consumer unit.

Fault diagnosis

Why are my lights flickering?

Flicker ranges from a cheap LED lamp arguing with a dimmer, which is annoying and harmless, to a loose connection heating up inside a joint, which is the early stage of a fire. Telling those apart is the whole job.

Fault diagnosis

Sockets not working: what to check and what not to touch

Dead sockets almost always come down to one of four things: a tripped device, a failed spur, a loose connection at a socket, or a fault in an appliance dragging the circuit down. Two of those you can narrow down safely from where you are standing.

Burning smell from a socket: what to do right now

This is the one symptom on the site we will not soften. A burning or fishy smell at a socket means something has already overheated. Treat it as urgent, not as something to mention next time an electrician is passing.

Fault diagnosis

Fuse board buzzing: normal hum or warning sign?

A faint hum from a consumer unit is not automatically a fault. A buzz that changes with load, crackles, or comes with any warmth or smell is a different matter entirely, and it is one of the few noises in a house worth acting on immediately.

What to check before you call an electrician

Some call-outs end with a reset button and a slightly embarrassed customer. We would rather you found that out for free, so here is what is safe to check, and just as importantly, what is not.

Choosing an EV charger for your home

Most home chargers do the same core job at the same 7kW, so the decision is rarely about charging speed. It is about the cable, the tariff, where the unit goes and whether your supply can support it without load management.

Consumer unit upgrade: what actually happens on the day

A fuse board replacement is usually a one day job, and the part people are least prepared for is that the existing circuits have to pass testing before the new board can be signed off.

How long does a rewire take, and can you live in the house?

A three bedroom house is usually five to ten working days for the electrical work. Living in it is possible, uncomfortable, and considerably easier if you understand the sequence before it starts.

How to choose an electrician you can actually trust

Anyone can print a business card with a lightning bolt on it. The difference between a competent electrician and an expensive problem is almost always visible before the work starts, if you know which three or four things to check.

Kitchen electrical requirements for a UK refit

A kitchen puts more electrical load in one room than anywhere else in the house, and it is the room where the electrics have to be right before the units go in. Get the first fix wrong and the fix is measured in ruined worktops.

Bathroom electrical regulations, explained without the jargon

Bathrooms are the most tightly controlled room in a house electrically, and for an obvious reason: wet skin, earthed metal pipework and mains voltage are a bad combination. The rules are mostly about distance from water and enclosure ratings.

Wiring a UK home for smart control, properly

Most smart home disappointment comes down to one thing: the wiring was never designed for it. A handful of decisions made before the plaster goes on decide whether the system feels invisible or infuriating.

Solar and batteries

Solar panel electrical requirements for a UK home

The panels are the easy part. What decides whether a solar installation goes smoothly is the state of the consumer unit, the earthing arrangement and whether the network operator has been told what you are connecting.

When to call an emergency electrician, and when it can wait

Some electrical faults need someone tonight. Many are safe to isolate and deal with in the morning at a fraction of the cost. Knowing the difference saves money and, occasionally, considerably more than money.

Fuse board or consumer unit? What you have and what it means

People use fuse box, fuse board and consumer unit interchangeably, and mostly that is fine. The distinction that matters is not the name on it: it is what type of protective devices are inside, and whether there is RCD protection.

Electric car charger types compared

There are really only four kinds of charging a UK driver encounters, and the differences between them are about power and place rather than brand. Understanding which is which stops you paying for capability you cannot use.

Outdoor lighting and garden electrics, done properly

Garden electrics fail for boring reasons: water, poor cable choice and a spade. Almost every outdoor fault we attend comes back to one of those three, and all three are avoidable at installation.

Electrical requirements for a house extension

Extensions go wrong electrically for one reason above all others: the electrical design is treated as something to sort out once the walls are up. By then the cheap decisions have already been made for you.

Part P building regulations, explained plainly

Part P is short, frequently misquoted and genuinely matters when you sell a house. It does not say only electricians may touch wiring. It says certain work has to be notified and shown to meet the standard.

How much does it cost to add sockets to a room?

The honest answer is that the socket costs a few pounds and everything else is access. Two sockets on the same wall as an existing one is a different job from one socket on a chimney breast in a stone terrace.

Three phase power at home: when it is worth it

Almost every UK house has a single phase supply, and almost every UK house should keep it. Three phase solves a specific problem, and if you do not have that problem it is an expensive way to buy nothing.

Electrical fire safety in the home

Electricity causes a large share of accidental house fires in the UK, and the causes are depressingly repetitive: overloaded leads, failing connections, damaged cables and appliances left running unattended.

What a full house rewire actually costs, and why

Rewire quotes vary more than any other electrical job, and the variation is almost never about the cable. It is about access, the number of circuits, how much making good is included and whether the quote is honest about the plaster.

Old wiring types, and how to tell what you have

You can date a lot of a house's wiring from a few visible clues at the consumer unit, a ceiling rose and a socket back box. Knowing roughly what era you are dealing with tells you how urgent a rewire really is.

Getting the electrics checked before you buy a house

A homebuyer survey will tell you the electrical installation looks dated and recommend further investigation. That sentence is doing a lot of work, and the further investigation is the bit that actually saves you money.

Consumer unit upgrade cost, and what changes it

Two quotes for the same fuse board replacement can differ by hundreds of pounds, and it is almost always because one has priced the bonding and the remedial work and the other has quietly assumed neither will be needed.

Powering a garden office properly

A garden office is not a shed with a laptop in it. Once someone is working out there five days a week with heating, screens and a kettle, the supply needs designing rather than borrowing from a nearby socket.

Smoke and carbon monoxide alarm rules in Wales

Wales has its own requirements and they are stricter than many people assume. Interlinked, mains powered alarms on every storey are the standard for rented homes, and they are the right specification for owner occupiers too.