Around this time of year I get many calls from homeowners asking me to carry out an electrical inspection of their property.

This can often due to an electrical problem that has arisen such as overloaded electrical circuits caused by switching on increased numbers of appliances such as electrical storage heaters now that the colder nights are drawing in.

August tends to be busy for moving home in the UK, normally in the build up to September which statistically is the busiest month for moving home.

When looking for a new property whether for living in or rental purposes something that very often gets overlooked is the electrics and specifically the safety elements and the functional side, these are not looked at in the property surveys and often the very first time they are noticed is when you move in.

Tomorrow marks the 58th anniversary of Friendship Day.

The first World Friendship Day was proposed for 30 July in 1958 and was started by Joyce Hall, the founder of Hallmark cards in 1930 – It was originally intended to be on the 2nd August and a day when people celebrated their friendships by sending cards.

Power cut what powercut

Welcome to the first of a new type of blog, one that takes a look on the day to day goings on of your local electrician but not, thankfully written every day, I am a Local Electrician in Bromley Kent.

It was an early start today, the first phone call came at 7.30 am, and luckily I was up and already hard at work.

On the other end of the phone was a local Lady who had suffered a power cut which began last night, it had now resulted in the entire contents of the freezer defrosting and being thrown away.

Recently I read about proposals being made in the House of Lords regarding changes to the renters’ rights bill. Lots of things discussed but I am going to focus on 1 particular item.

The proposal; Making five-yearly electrical safety checks mandatory in the private rental sector.

Charity Electrical Safety First are pushing for the new legislation to ensure that regular, five-yearly electrical safety checks in the private rental sector are a legal requirement for landlords or letting agents acting on their behalf.

Back in 1946 the first combined radio and TV licence, costing £2, was issued. In June 1946 there were in the region of 1.5m to 3m licences issued.

In March 2004, there were 24.5m licences in force and today in 2016 the figure is even higher than that.

Now you may ask what the relevance of a TV licence is to this blog and it’s simply this…

Many of the blogs that I have written in the past mention how important it is to have an RCD fitted in your home. Although I've explained the importance of having one, I've never actually explained what an RCD does and how it protects the household.

An RCD stands for Residual Current Device. It is an essential safety device that automatically cuts off the electricity if there is a problem. This might sound pretty boring and bog standard, and you might even wonder what the point of having one is.

Ever wondered what the difference is? Well, it involves a very simple check, but firstly what other factors should you be looking at before deciding who is a good electrician and who is a bad electrician. The answer is found right at the end of this post (in case you are wondering.)

It is not easy to spot who is good and who is bad at face value. This is why I always recommend doing some digging about and researching an electrician that you feel might fit the bill for your next job. Carrying out a few basic checks can save you a lot of trouble further down the line.

Unfortunately this scenario crops up quite often when I go out to visit clients.

I hear often that electricians turn up hours after they had arranged, or in some cases not at all. This understandably leads to much frustration on the Customers part and a general distrust of electricians in general.

I have to say that this kind of 'problem' is very common within the trade. M.T.R Electrics however pride themselves on professional service and we understand that time is very valuable.

Numerous references from the past have illuminated the fact that lamps have been used to spread light, even before electricity was invented, and lighting was given a new meaning. The use of lamps can be broadly classified into two eras: The pre-electrical era and the post electrical era.

Lamps: The Pre-electrical Era: