I think I relate with practically every electrician when I say I receive messages from friends on a regular basis about electrical problems in their homes. Some are well meaning and make perfect sense that they're seeking reassurance and others are just plain dangerous.
Take a recent Friday evening at home. I was just thinking of ordering my weekly Chinese takeaway when there was a knock on my front door. It was my neighbour from 4 doors down who had arrived home to find a slight problem in his kitchen – well more of an explosion might be a better term.
Enter the chancer
Yes he was having his home renovated. Using professional qualified tradespeople? Of course not. He had hired....wait for it.....a friend, perhaps best described as an odd job man who incidentally had spent the best part of a day re-felting a small porch roof....well ok he hadn't started it until 11am that Sunday, perhaps he'd had a lie in!
Anyway, it transpired that my neighbour had recently had a new kitchen installed and was unable to use the switched fuse spur – this was the reason I was now standing in his kitchen. His well meaning friend had decided to have a go at this unknown electrical phenomenon and thought (perhaps to his joy) that he'd resolved it nicely by placing a fuse inside the said spur and voilà the oven could now be switched on and off!
Fast forward a day....
and yes you've guessed it something awful happened in his absence (he was at work) and had been unharmed. Unfortunately the kitchen was not so lucky – in fact the wall had literally exploded and the said switched fused spur was now in a very sorry state. This horror, better described as the mini blitz had also cut the power off to the rest of his house and there was no RCD incidentally.
His saving grace was the fact that next door had kindly lent an extension lead that was trailing from their house into my neighbours. It was being used to charge a phone and power a lamp – priorities matter you see and oh....it wasn't raining, for once. Perhaps they wouldn't have been so keen to help had they have lost half their house due to this 'minor' episode.
Getting it sorted
Now at past 8pm on a dark Winter evening the chances of getting hold of an electrician to get his power on tonight was pretty slim. Hence why he'd come to me. Unfortunately for him I was unable to help for as you know, I no longer work on the tools, so although I could visually check for danger and give him some advise (call an electrician) that was all I could offer. However electricians, being the amazing folk they are sprung to help my neighbour out.
I phoned my local professional electrician (who is one of my clients) who agreed to come out to him and assess the problem. Well he got his power back on for him and recommended he have a consumer unit upgrade – jobs a good 'un!
This could have caused severe electrical injury or even death. This is why it is so important to only use qualified and registered electricians if you have any concerns about your home electrics.
What happened afterwards
I've no idea how much work was involved in redecorating the nearly new kitchen but my neighbour actually cancelled the consumer unit upgrade on the morning of the job. Clearly a blow to electrical safety.
All we can hope is that a valuable lesson has been learnt in not tampering with home electrics.