Electrical

This month will see the Electrical Times honouring contractors, apprentices, manufacturers and wholesalers from around the UK for their hard work over the past year at the Electrical Industry Awards. Continue reading →

Got some free time on July 25th and want to learn more about the extended wiring regulations for earth and bonding? Continue reading →

With a recent survey in Nottingham showing that just fewer than 50% of families don’t have the right protection against electrical shocks, you have to wonder how widespread the problem is in the UK. The Electrical Safety Council (ESC) recently carried out the survey around the Nottingham area and found that 48% of families surveyed do not have a residual current device (RCD) installed in their fuse boxes. Continue reading →

Please note this blog was originally published in July 2012. It was updated on the 30th April 2021. Through its technological advances, the modern world has brought us a lot of new materials, substances, and other goods to make our lives easier, better, and a lot more comfortable. Electricity is one of the most common and most relied upon of the modern inventions; it is, however, still one of the most dangerous if it is misused or its applications of use are underestimated. Continue reading →

Fixed wire testing may only have to be legally completed every five years, but this is an approach that is no longer recommended by the IET. Five yearly fixed-wire testing is a legal procedure for organisations to ensure that all electrical equipment is safe for human use, but this process could leave electrical components as a danger in the time between tests, potentially causing accidents in the workplace. Continue reading →

Ever had the power go down suddenly at work or your house with seemingly no explanation? A furry tree-dweller may well be the one to point the accusing finger at. Countless cases of squirrels nibbling on electrical cables have been reported over the years, including an outage in Greenwich, Connecticut that caused 14,500 homes to be without power. Continue reading →

The national Electotechnical Training charity(NET) is sponsoring the search by SummmitSkills to find Britain’s best young electrical.  Each contender must be under 25 and will have to compete in a number of intensive practical tests based off a number of real life scenarios. There will be a number of regional heats that culminate in the final being held at the...

With a focus on developing new, more useful products, Fluke has announced they are discontinuing more items. Continue reading →

According to the European standards, requirements for electrical installation safety testing should include a combination of following tests: • Insulation resistance • Continuity of protective conductors and equipotential bonding • RCD testing • Line and fault loop impedance • Earth resistance testing (two-wire method without probes, three / four wire method with two probes, method with current clamp and two probes, method with two current clamps) • Specific earth resistance • Phase sequence, voltage and frequency Continue reading →

If you’ve ever seen a proving unit for sale, you may have been rather flabbergasted by the price. You’ve probably stared at it for a little while before saying – probably audibly – ‘Why are proving units so expensive?’ They’re not cheap pieces of kit, that’s for certain. Lower grade models generally start below the £100 mark, while others can cost over £1000. But why is this price so high? Continue reading →