Most electrical faults give you warning. A trip switch that keeps going. A socket that feels warm behind the kettle. A light that dims when the shower comes on.
The trouble is that these things arrive gradually, and you get used to them. Somebody in the house learns not to use that socket, and everyone stops thinking about it.
Here’s what’s worth paying attention to, and what to do about it.
A circuit breaker that trips again and again
A circuit breaker doing its job once is fine. Something faulty gets plugged in, it cuts the power, you reset it.
A circuit breaker that trips repeatedly is different. It’s telling you there’s a persistent fault on that circuit: damaged cable, water somewhere it shouldn’t be, or a circuit carrying more than it was designed for.
Resetting it over and over isn’t a fix. It’s ignoring the one part of the system that’s working properly.
Warm sockets, discoloured faceplates and burning smells
Electrical accessories shouldn’t be warm. If a socket or switch feels hot to the touch, or the plastic has gone yellow, brown or scorched around the pins, stop using it and get it looked at.
A burning smell is urgent. So is a fishy or acrid smell with no obvious source — overheating plastic gives off exactly that, and people often go looking for a dead mouse before they think of the electrics.
Other things in the same category:
- Black marks or scorching around a socket or light fitting
- Cracked faceplates, especially where you can see the terminals
- A plug that’s hot when you unplug it
- Sparking when you switch something on
Flickering lights and buzzing sounds
Occasional flicker on one lamp is usually the bulb or the fitting. Lights dimming across the house when an appliance kicks in, or flickering on several circuits, points at something further back — a loose connection or a problem at the supply.
Buzzing or humming from a socket, switch or the consumer unit itself is worth a call. So is a switch that crackles.
None of this means the house is about to catch fire. It does mean something has worked loose or is starting to degrade, and loose connections generate heat.
The consumer unit — or the fuse box
Go and look at yours. It tells you a lot.
If you’ve got an older box with rewirable fuses — the ceramic carriers with fuse wire in them — the installation is likely to be decades old. Same if you have a wooden backing board, or a mix of separate boxes added over the years.
The other thing to check is RCD protection. An RCD detects current going where it shouldn’t, such as through a person, and cuts the supply in a fraction of a second. Older installations often have none at all.
If your board has no RCD, that’s the single most worthwhile upgrade in most older properties.
Old cable
In a lot of London housing stock, the wiring is older than the people living with it.
Rubber-insulated and fabric-covered cable were phased out a long time ago. The insulation goes brittle with age, cracks, and eventually exposes conductors — often inside walls or under floors where nobody can see it.
You can sometimes spot it at a light fitting or where the cables enter the consumer unit. If you find it, that’s an installation due for assessment rather than patching.
Not enough sockets
If every room runs off extension leads and multi-way adaptors, the property doesn’t have enough sockets. It’s an inconvenience, but it’s also how circuits get overloaded and how trailing leads end up under rugs.
Adding sockets is straightforward work and makes a rented property noticeably easier to live in.
Outside and in the bathroom
These are the two places where a bodge is genuinely dangerous. Outdoor sockets, garden lighting and anything in a shed or garage need the right rating, the right cable and RCD protection.
Bathrooms have strict rules about what can go where in relation to the bath and shower. A socket in a bathroom, a damaged pull-cord, or an extension lead running out to the garden is a job for an electrician.
What an EICR actually is
An EICR — Electrical Installation Condition Report — is an inspection and test of the fixed wiring in a property by a qualified electrician. They check the consumer unit, the circuits, the earthing and bonding, and a sample of accessories, then report anything unsatisfactory with a code showing how serious it is. You end up with either a satisfactory report or a list of remedial work.
In England, a private landlord must have an EICR carried out at least every five years and provide a copy to tenants. It’s also one of the details expected to sit on the national landlord database as that comes in. Rules do change, so it’s worth checking the current position or taking advice.
Owner-occupiers aren’t legally required to have one. It’s still a sensible thing to do — particularly in older housing stock, and particularly before you buy.
Please don’t do this yourself
Electrical work isn’t a job to learn on. Even swapping a faceplate assumes you know what you’ll find behind it, and some domestic electrical work in England is notifiable under Part P of the Building Regulations — a new circuit, a new consumer unit, or alterations in a bathroom — which means it has to be certified or signed off by building control.
If any of this sounds familiar, upload a photo of your consumer unit or the socket in question through our Get a quote page and we’ll come back with a view on whether it’s a small job or needs a proper look.
