Electricity

General Advice

• Never use an electrical appliance while standing in water or bathing.
• Don't even use your hair dryer when standing on a damp floor.
• Don't place objects containing water on top of a television, for example flower vases or goldfish bowls.
• You should report any problems with electricity to your local housing office immediately.
• Make sure all broken or faulty appliances are repaired by qualified individuals.

Resetting a trip switch

• Modern electric circuits are fitted with circuit breakers called trip switches. If a fault develops, a switch is tripped and the circuit is broken.
• All of the fuses or trip switches are located in the consumer unit. Some consumer units have buttons rather than switches. The consumer unit may be next to the electricity meter (unless the meter is in an outside cupboard).
• A trip switch or button usually operates because:
  • there are too many fittings or appliances on a circuit and it has been overloaded
  • an appliance is faulty or has been misused, such as a kettle that has been over filled or a toaster that has not been cleaned
  • water has leaked into a circuit or spilt onto a plug
  • a light bulb has blown
  • an immersion heater is faulty.

Make sure your hands are dry when you touch electrical fittings and never touch the electricity company's fuse and seals.

What to do to reset the trip

• open the cover on the consumer unit to expose the trip switches/buttons
• check which switches/buttons have tripped to the OFF position and which rooms (circuit) have been affected put these switches/buttons back to the ON position.

If the trip goes again It is probably being caused by a faulty appliance or light. You need to identify which circuit is being affected and which appliance on that circuit is causing the problem:

• check all the rooms and note which set of lights or sockets is not working
• unplug all appliances on that problem circuit, and switch off the immersion heater. switch the 'tripped' switch to the ON position (press in if it is a button)
• plug in the appliances or switch on each light one at a time until the trip goes again.

Do not use adaptors when testing appliances. This advice only applies to modern consumer units. If you have an older 'fuse board' type with rewirable cartridges, do not touch it and contact your local housing office immediately.