Electrical Rewiring your Home – A Crisp and Useful Guide
Living with an outdated electrical wiring system is risky. If the wiring in your home or office is outdated you should better have the property rewired without any delay. When you have wiring in a property that is done correctly you bypass a lot of annoyances related to electrics like flickering lights. Moreover a properly installed wiring allows you to make considerable savings every month on your electricity utility bills. Rewiring any home or property is actually a major undertaking by any standard. It requires calculated planning and lot of patience to tackle such projects.
In the following sections of the post let us explore few important considerations related to rewiring your property or home. After going through this post tackling any electrical rewiring project head-on will be much easier for you.
First you should understand your unique requirements and needs
You must know it right from the start that rewiring a property is not just about replacing the existing (old and outdated) wires. Depending on the unique condition of your electrical system it may also be important to replace and upgrade your existing breaker box or electrical panel at the same time. an upgraded breaker box enables you to make use of a larger number of electronic and electrical appliances at a time.
Professionally trained and experienced
A professionally trained and experienced electrician in London who deals with electrical rewiring has something important to say in this ongoing context. According to the expert electrical consumption of the entire society in general is steadily spiralling up with time. Earlier – that is in the 1960s and 70s homes were mostly built with 60 amps panels and that kind of configuration for electrical panels was perfectly alright considering the standard consumption of electricity of the families. In the present circumstances the consumption level has gone up significantly and in addition to that there is the prerequisite for home insurance. So even if you keep your electrical consumptions low every month in your home and can manage with a 60 amps electrical panel, still you have to install a panel with higher configuration only to qualify for the homeowner’s insurance.
If the truth is to be spilled, a 60 amps electrical panel is never unsafe provided you use it correctly although by the existing standards it is quite insufficient even for a small home. In a standard sized home, chances are higher that users will mistakenly overload these panels to fuel the condition of fire risk.
Built with panels
Modern homes are built with panels that are 100 amps, 150 amps or 200 amps in capacity. Panels with 150 amps capacity are little less popular as the overwhelming majority of homes across the UK rely on either 100 amps or 200 amps models. According to technical experts a 100 amps panel is sufficient for a property that measures 3,000 sq ft or less. On the other hand the 200 amps model of electrical panel proves to be more energy efficient if your property is larger than 3,000 sq ft in area or you use a number of appliances that consume a lot of electrical power like a hot tub or an electrical water heater explains an expert who deals with house rewire in London over the years.
Replacing electrical fixtures
Homes that were wired in the 1980s and later usually require only a few electrical upgrades compared to the homes wired earlier while replacing a worn or damaged electrical wiring. Even while replacing electrical fixtures in such homes will call for only a fewer electrical upgrades compared to the other homes mentioned earlier. An electrical upgrading of a property does not only involve replacing its existing wiring but also means carrying out other tasks like replacement of old light fixtures, light switches, electrical sockets and others.
Old round electrical sockets and switches need to be replaced with their modern versions to ensure electrical safety in a property. Even if there is no trunking of the skirting in a property then it is also important to upgrade the sockets and switches in that property as well. The modern versions like sockets with built in USB ports and push button lights instead of those toggle designs are much safer to use and at the same time prove to be more user-friendly to cater to the modern electrical needs of the society in general.
Going DIY or hiring a professional?
Dedicated DIY minded people usually love doing rewiring of their home themselves and they do not hire a professional for it. This saves money but may take up substantial time depending on the skill sets you possess. Moreover the task involves performing a lot of basic tasks like cutting, drilling, running wires and obviously patching holes. All these tasks demand a lot of manual labour and physical exhaustion warns an electrician who does house rewiring near me in London. So before you start this DIY electrical adventure you should give the while idea a fresh and careful thought.
It is also important in the course of electrically rewiring your home to get yourself used. To the local electrical codes and collect the relevant permits. Then it is time to create a detailed map of all the electrical circuits that you plan to rewire. The map should also include all the electrical switches, fixtures and sockets that your work will cover.
Get a certified electrician
Before taking the plunge it is a good idea to get a certified electrician inspect the existing electrical system. To tell you whether the work may turn out to be dangerous or complex for you to handle alone. The expert can also take a look at your blueprint and identify any potential mistake if any.
Once your DIY electrical rewiring project ends it has to formally pass an inspection performed by a licensed electrician. Before starting the DIY project you must get hold of a licensed electrician who will perform this customary inspection. Every qualified electrician does not agree to inspect any work that they did not do themselves.
Once your project kick starts to life move all the furniture to the middle of the room or if possible have those completely removed from the house till your work ends. Trained and licensed electricians working at the renowned Electric Works London suggest you must plan ahead for the upcoming 25 years from now as every home undergoes an electrical rewiring once in a couple of decades.