Electrical Tips. Page Five

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="044fd5a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>I.R. Johnson (Electrical)                  </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>   </B></FONT><B> </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="I.R. Johnson (Electrical) "><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Electrical Tips"><U>Electrical Tips</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tips. Page Two"><U>Tips. Page Two</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id67.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Electrical Tips. Page Three"><U>Electrical Tips. Page Three</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Electrical Tips. Page Four"><U>Electrical Tips. Page Four</U></A>   |   <B>Electrical Tips. Page Five</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="045d2b03.jpg"> <div> www.Sparkey.biz</div> <div> <A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Electrical Tips. Page Four"><U><I><IMG SRC="0d35f230.gif" border=0 width="95" height="35" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Electrical Tips. Page Four"><U><I><IMG SRC="0785f230.gif" border=0 width="95" height="35" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id66.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Electrical Tips. Index"><U><I><IMG SRC="1315f230.gif" border=0 width="95" height="35" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="I.R. Johnson (Electrical) "><U><IMG SRC="08c62250.gif" border=0 width="98" height="37" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#CCFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Electrical Tips. Page Five</I><I>                                                          </I><I> <A NAME="top"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></I></div> <bR> <div> <I>General Tips</I></div> <bR> <div> 11.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" > When Buying a House. D</FONT>ecide before you purchase, if your are gong to add or make alterations to the existing electrical installation. This is important in a modern property with chipboard flooring, as alterations are more or less impossible without in some cases, removing the entire floor of a room to gain access to the existing wiring. Bear in mind that in a property other than a bungalow, 85 % of the wiring is under the bedroom floors. Most electrical contractors will not attempt removal of such floors so you will need to call a carpenter if you wish to go ahead with any electrical work. Chipboard floors in later properties are usually glued and screwed, with plaster board walls built over the floors. In some cases floor joist spacing can be 18 inches to 2 ft apart making it impossible to work in some first floor passageways, due to floor joists being under walls of adjoining rooms. By removing the floor (which would have to be cut) you would be left with nothing to support a replacement floor. If a house with chipboard floors needs rewiring, I would suggest you avoid purchasing unless you are prepared to spend a lot of money putting everything right.</div> <bR> <div> Installing wiring through cavity walls is no longer allowed, so irrespective of the condition of decor, should the property need rewiring or additional wiring, walls will have to be chased out and conduit installed, so bear in mind redecoration costs.</div> <bR> <div> Does the property have damp problems, if it does, it will quite probably need rewiring, unless it has recently been carried out, as damp is the biggest enemy of copper cabling.</div> <bR> <div> 12. <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" >When does my house need rewiring? </FONT>A difficult question to answer without inspecting the installation, but firstly, if you know the wiring is over 25 years of age then it definitely does need rewiring. Are the cables either rubber or lead covered, if they are, your wiring is long overdue replacement.</div> <bR> <div> All modern wiring has an earth conductor within its construction, if any of your wiring does not have this conductor, it needs replacement.</div> <bR> <div> Often a property has alterations and additions over the years, especially kitchens, so the average house may contain wiring of different ages. A good place to get an idea of wiring age is bedroom lights. For some reason, centre lights are often ignored with people preferring to use table lamps, and the usual indication of age, is pendants wired in twin twisted flex. Light switches are another example, if the property contains any of the old round Bakelite type of light switch dating back to the 1950-60's, or if the switches look fairly modern but with a toggle rather than a rocker switch, it is highly probable the wiring is of a similar age.</div> <bR> <div> A  sure example of a house needing rewiring, is one that contains fuse boxes constructed of wood with a side hinged cover, containing porcelain fuses, either double or single pole. If you are living in a property with double pole fuse boxes, i.e. two banks of fuses with two fuses to each circuit, then all I can suggest is moving out until your property has been rewired, as chances are the installation is lethal.</div> <bR> <div> If in any doubt, most reputable electrical companies or electricians will be more than happy to inspect your wiring for you at no cost whatsoever, the safety of you and your family is our main concern, and chances are the installation is safe anyway.</div> <bR> <div> 13. <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" >How much does it all cost? </FONT>This is another rather difficult question to answer as there are so many deciding factors, Firstly, is you house occupied or empty. If it is occupied, carpets and furniture have to be removed to gain access to floors, also of course, power has to be maintained as much as practically possible, this of course increases the time factor for the rewiring work with a obvious increase in the overall cost of the work.</div> <div> Is the property a bungalow? If it is, the majority of the work is undertaken from the loft making it less intrusive for the occupants and generally easier to carry out, but all exposed cables have to be neatly and securely clipped to joists which does once again increase the time taken to complete the work.</div> <bR> <div> Taking a typical three bedroom house as an example, unoccupied, with no outbuildings requiring rewiring work, we will assume it contains apart from the bedrooms, a first floor bathroom, and hall, ground floor hall, lounge, dining room and kitchen, assuming each bedroom, the lounge and dining room requires a light and three switch sockets, with four sockets in the kitchen, cooker supply, boiler supply, immersion heater etc. replacement consumer unit, all earthing and bonding, you should be thinking in terms of a figure around £2,000.00 to carry out the work.</div> <bR> <div> This is just a very rough estimate but at least it will give you a general idea. The best advice is to get a reputable electrical company to give you an estimate, which most businesses are more than happy to provide, at no cost to you..</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Electrical Tips. Page Five"><U><B>Top</B></U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>