Electrical Safety

We want you to be safe and secure in your home.

This page contains advice to help you avoid accidents, and to make sure you and your family know how to use electricity in your home safely.

First, check where your mains switch is and that you know how to turn it off if there is an emergency.

If you have a trip switch in your home, make sure you know how to reset it.

Get an appliance checked before you use it again if it h as caused the trip switch to cut out.

The appliance causing the problem is probably the last one you turned on. If in doubt, turn on the appliances you have been using one by one until you find out which one has caused the switch to trip.

If your electricity fails and you have a token meter - always check you have a supply of tokens in the meter.

Simple safety checks

You can help to keep your family safe by knowing what to check for on electrical items in your home. If you think something needs repairing or changing do it straight away.

Plugs and sockets

Look out for:

hot plugs or sockets,scorch marks, fuses that often blow, or flickering lights. These are all signs of loose wiring or other electrical problems
badly wired plugs – any coloured wires sticking out could come loose and debris could also get into the plug
overloaded sockets – plugging too many electrical appliances into one socket can lead to overheating.

Cables and leads

Check for these problems:

fraying and damage – make sure the outer covering of all power leads is in good condition and replace if necessary
bad positioning – make sure leads can’t be tripped over and that they are not near water, cookers or other sources of heat
don’t run leads under rugs or carpets – they may wear out without anyone noticing.

Appliances

General rules:

don’t get them wet. For example, don’t put a vase of flowers on top of the TV in case you knock it over.
leave them on at night – unless they are designed to be left on,like freezers
put anything in the microwave that is made of metal, or has a metallic finish or parts.

Keep electrical items in good working order

Simple maintenance tips make sure your electrical items are safe to use.

Arrange a yearly service by a qualified electrician, for appliances that run at high speeds and contain motors, like washing machines.

Plugs, sockets and cables

To use plugs, sockets and cables safely, always:

change a plug properly and make sure you can’t see any coloured wires between the plug and the power lead
make sure the wires are held firmly in place inside the plug
use sockets safely – it’s better to use an extension lead than a single multi-plug adaptor
only use 1 adaptor per socket – don’t plug 1 adaptor into another and try to keep to 1 plug per socket.

Fuses

If you’re fitting or changing a fuse, make sure you use the right fuse for the appliance. Check the manual or look for a sticker on the appliance to find out its wattage and then use the correct fuse: