Instant Estimate FAQs

Earth bonding is a safety measure that helps protect you from electric shock. It involves connecting metal pipes (like gas or water pipes) to the electrical earthing system, so that in the event of a fault, electricity flows safely to the ground rather than through you. It’s especially important in kitchens and bathrooms, where water and electricity are close together. If your bonding is missing or not up to current standards, we’ll usually recommend updating it as part of any major electrical work. Some new builds have plastic pipework, in which case earth bonding can sometimes be omitted. To check if you have earth bonding you need to look near the water stop tap (usually under the kitchen sink) and near the gas meter or where the gas pipes enter the property. If you can't see a green and yellow cable clamped onto the pipes you might not have earth bonding. https://static.wixstatic.com/media/82cd58_536444e5f91544dc87ef47b87cd41a7c~mv2.jpg

Here are the most common reasons we recommend a fusebox upgrade: • No RCD protection: Modern fuseboxes include RCDs (Residual Current Devices), which help protect against electric shock. You can usually spot an RCD by looking for a test button (often marked ‘T’ or ‘Test’) on the front. If your fusebox doesn’t have any test buttons, it likely has no RCD protection at all and should be upgraded. • Outdated RCDs (Type AC): Many older fuseboxes use Type AC RCDs, which are no longer recommended for most installations. These types can fail to detect faults caused by modern electronics. We explain more about how to recognise RCD types in another FAQ, but in short: if your fusebox uses Type AC RCDs, it may not offer the level of safety needed today. • Rewirable fuses: These are the old-style fuses with fuse wire that needs replacing when they blow. They offer no additional protection beyond basic overload and short-circuit safety, upgrading is strongly advised. • Nuisance tripping issues: Older fuseboxes often use a split-load setup, meaning one RCD protects multiple circuits. This can cause everything on that side to trip if there's a single fault — even if it’s just a dodgy appliance. Newer fuseboxes use RCBOs, which give individual protection per circuit. This is safer and far more reliable.

✅ Type A RCDs (the type we install today) can be recognised by this symbol on the front of the device: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/82cd58_816d770acefe4236a3f17a3242d87497~mv2.jpg https://static.wixstatic.com/media/82cd58_29867f5b8e964911ad4cbfc11ad65517~mv2.jpg ❌ Type AC RCDs (common in consumer units installed up until 2018) can be recognised by this symbol: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/82cd58_b557702608ff4283851318c86113425f~mv2.png https://static.wixstatic.com/media/82cd58_f7d1339e15d346049aac717390ae647a~mv2.jpg