Lazap Electrical
Domestic
SERVICES > DOMESTIC
Domestic Details
Domestic Testing & Inspections
There are many reasons why you could need an electrical test or inspection on your property or electrical items. It could be for insurance purposes, landlord's inspection, change of use, ownership or even just for your own peace of mind.
No matter what the reason, our team of highly trained staff are capable of providing full electrical testing and inspections of any type for all our domestic, commercial and industrial customers.
All electrical systems deteriorate with age and use so it is important that they are maintained regularly to ensure that the safety of people around the system is not at risk.
Properties should have electrical installations certified regularly to ensure the safety of the electrical system. A domestic electrical installation condition report, formerly known as a periodic inspection, will reveal potential hazards within the tested installation, check for earth and bonding (or the lack of it), as well as identify any defective work whilst checking all the fixed wiring. This includes testing RCDs to make sure they trip under fault conditions and checking fuse and circuit breaker ratings.
Landlords hold the responsibility to ensure that the property that is being rented is fit for purpose. This includes the electrical wiring. A domestic electrical installation condition report (for landlords) is required either every time the property changes tenancy or every 5 years, whichever is sooner.
This ensures that the tenant has not changed or damaged the electrical system in any way.
Homeowners and businesses are recommended to have an electrical inspection every 5 years.
Distribution Board / Fuse Board / Consumer Unit Replacements
At Lazap Electrical we recommend that you have your old fuse board upgraded to a new 17th edition consumer unit.
There are many homes in the UK that still have old-style fuse boards with outdated fuses installed, these offer little or no protection against electrocution. There are a number of benefits to renewing your outdated fuse board, just to name a couple are improved safety and improved electrical efficiency. A modern consumer unit is fitted with a residual-current device (RCD) which provides additional protection to your property. Also fitted in modern 17th edition units are mini circuit breakers (MCB’s) which give protection to each individual circuit within your home, in case of an electrical surge or fault.
Lazap Electrical engineers are fully qualified and can provide complete fuse board replacements and upgrades to all the current British standards. Before replacing the fuse board our engineers would inspect the install and advise if any extra work will be needed in order to get the new fuse board up to standard and in line with regulations.
Our engineers are also capable of rewiring fuse boards, installing new MCB’s and RCD’s in existing boards.
All consumer unit replacements are done to current British standards with 17th edition boards. There are various options as to which consumer unit is installed. Please speak to a member of our staff for more details.
Please note that when replacing fuse boards, Due to current regulations (BS7671) and Part P certifications the following additional works may need to be undertaken:
- Upgrade of the main earthing conductor
- Upgrade of the main tails
- Full testing and inspection (Part P)
- Upgrade of the main protective conductor
How to identify if your fuse board is out of date and needs updating
Does it have a wooden back board? (If so this fuse board could date back to the 50’s)
Does your fuse board have rewindable or push button circuit breakers? If so these are out of date and the fuse board should be replaced.
Does the board have ceramic fuse holders or poor access to fuses? (If so the fuse board should be replaced.)
Does your fuse board contain a RCD trip switch, most up to date consumer units will contain 2 or more RCD's which provide additional protection to your home.
Smoke Detectors
The Fire and Rescue service is called out to over 600,000 times a year for fires which end in over 800 deaths and 17,000 injuries.
An estimated 50,000 of these are house fires which kill nearly 500 and injure over 11,000. Many of these injuries could have been prevented if people had early warnings and were able to escape earlier.
It is a proven fact that you are twice as likely to die in a house fire that has no smoke alarm than one which does. So buying smoke alarms could save the lives of your family and your home.
Smoke alarms are self-contained units which detect smoke in your home (in the early stages of a fire) and set of an alarm to warn you of this usually with a loud beeping sound. Standard smoke detectors are usually about the size of your hand and are fitted in hall ways / kitchens to cover most of the house.
Because they detect the smoke in the early stages of the fire it gives you and your family time to evacuate the property in safety.
Types of Smoke Alarms
There are four main types of smoke alarms, Optical, Heat, Ionisation and combined. They are all meant for slightly different uses/areas. Below we go into more detail on each type:
Optical (Photo electronic):
These are one of the more expensive choices, but much more efficient at detecting larger smoke particles from slow burning fires, smouldering furniture and electrical fires. This type of alarm is a little less sensitive to fast flaming fires, these are usually installed near (not in) kitchens because they are less likely than ionisation alarms to go off whenever toast is burned.
Ionisation:
This is the cheapest and most cost effective type of smoke detector. Ionisation smoke detectors are very sensitive to smaller smoke particles from fast flaming fires like wood and paper. They will detect this type of fire before the smoke thickens giving people more time to escape the house. They are not as sensitive as the optical type for slow burning fires which give of larger quantities of smoke before flaming occurs. They can also be over sensitive near kitchens going off when toast is burnt.
Heat Alarms:
Heat alarms are usually used in kitchens, Instead of detecting smoke they detect the increase in temperature from a fire. This type of detector will only cover a small area of a room so we would generally fit a few in larger kitchens.
Combined Optical smoke and Heat alarms:
This is a combination of a heat alarm and an optical detector in one unit. These units reduce false alarms whilst increasing the speed of which a fire is detected.
Combined smoke and Carbon dioxide alarms:
This type of alarm combines both a smoke detector and carbon dioxide detector in one ceiling mounted unit. These units take up less space and reduce the costs involved in making your home safer.
All of these smoke alarms look very similar and are powered either by battery or mains power (Or both with the battery as a backup power supply). Some smoke detectors can be interlinked so if any smoke detector’s alarm goes off every detector in the house will raise the alarm. This can be done by hard wiring or with radio-interlinked smoke alarms.
The majority of modern smoke alarms have hush buttons for when a false alarm is raised. False alarms can be a nuisance when you are cooking if the alarm goes off you can simply press the hush button and it will silence the alarm. Often after using the hush button there will be a red light flashing or a chirping noise to make the user aware that the alarm has been silenced.
Most standard battery powered smoke detectors will need the battery replacing once every 12 months. There are alarms on the market with sealed 10 year batteries already in, giving the advantage of not having to replace the batteries annually. New buildings have to have mains powered alarms fitted as well as any major refurbs. You should make sure that any mains powered alarms have battery back up’s in case the mains power is interrupted. These can be standard alkaline batteries that need replacing yearly or built in rechargeable lithium batteries which will last for the lifetime of the alarm. These must be fitted by qualified electricians.
It is common for false alarms to be set off when cooking or if toast is burnt. An alarm installed in a kitchen must be a heat alarm rather than a smoke detector to stop this from happening. If installing an alarm just outside of the kitchen an optical smoke alarm or even a combined smoke and heat detector would be ideal, these are less likely to raise a false alarm. Some alarms also come with escape lights, to light the way out of the building and also to alert people that may not hear the alarm. As well as the lights, there are smoke alarm systems for the deaf and hard of hearing with vibration pads to go under pillows and strobe lights which go off if alarms are raised to alert them whilst asleep.
Which smoke alarms should I choose and where should they be fitted?
There is a general rule for smoke alarm positioning please see below:
Bedrooms:
Optical smoke detectors OR combined optical smoke and heat detector.
Landings
Ionisation smoke alarms OR Combined optical smoke and heat detector.
Kitchen and Garage:
Heat alarms
It is recommended that you always buy smoke alarms that have been certified to the British or European standard.
The number of smoke alarms you should fit in your home varies depending on the size of the property. It is good practice to have an alarm fitted in every room other than the bathroom, and pick the alarm type most suited to each room. Alternatively if your house is all on one floor one alarm preferably of the optical type may be enough to warn you early of a fire, or if it is a 2 storey house then one alarm on each floor would be fine, a combination of ionisation and optical would be good.
Where should smoke alarms be fitted?
The general rule of practice for fitting smoke alarms is for them to be fitted as close to the centre of the room as possible but at least 30 centimetres (12 inches) away from the walls and light fittings. Make sure that it can be heard throughout the home (Especially when sleeping) If your home is on one level it should be fitted in the hallway between the living and sleeping areas. If you are in a two storey home it should be somewhere where it can be heard when you are asleep (e.g at the top of the stairs near the bedroom).
Installation Services
Lazap Electrical Services provides reliable and professional domestic, commercial and industrial services Throughout the London, Kent and Essex area.
At Lazap Electrical we offer a complete package to all of our customers, from design and installation to maintenance and repairs. All of our engineers are qualified and carry out work to the current British standards making sure that your home or businesses electrics are safe, usable and meet the current health and safety standards.
Our staff are qualified to work in both domestic and commercial areas, able to carry out work such as new power points and lighting, to full rewires and tests and inspections.
What domestic installation we can offer:
New build wiring / Existing property rewiring
Fuse board installations
New lighting or power sockets
Electrical Heating and hot water systems
Tests and inspections
Lighting systems
Garden lighting and power
Economy 7 systems
Storage heaters
Smoke detectors and CO alarms
Landlord services
Door entry, Alarms and CCTV
Emergency call outs
About Us
Coming soon