Winter Warmers From Good Electrical

Wow winter is here, and the team at Good Electrical hope you’re keeping warm.At Good Electrical they are busy getting through your jobs, but unfortunately they had a team member leave to work in the industrial electrical sector, so are not getting through as many jobs as they would like! If you know of anyone who is a registered electrician and would like a change or even an apprentice. Check out their job advertisement on their website under Latest News https://www.aucklandelectrician.co.nz/job-vacancy/.

Do you think your home needs to be rewired? Good Electrical have some tips for you. Homes which have not been touched or rewired for over 20 to 30 years usually require attention. This is not only because the wiring is potentially dangerous but also because older wiring systems can’t cope with the demands of modern living.

Do you have old round switches, rubber or fabric cables or power points fixed to the skirting boards?  Do you have a switch board with a wooden back and a mixture of fuse? These are all signs that your house needs rewiring. A modern switch board will have circuit breakers and residual circuit devices (RCDs).

Rewiring a property is messy, disruptive work. It happens in two stages:

Prewire, is when cables or wires are installed under floors, through walls and across ceilings. So, the prewire stage is best done without carpet or furniture, so the floorboards can be lifted, and the ceiling cut into. New switches and points would need to be re-positioned to meet current legal requirements. This could mean walls need to be patched. Therefore, it’s important to plan what’s going where in each room before starting the prewire stage.

Avoid additions mid-way through: they are costly and time consuming. One way to avoid them is by drawing a plan of your home on graph paper and marking out the rooms with the positions of beds, sofas, kitchen units and so on. You can then consider the lighting and placement of switches and power points. Little things like under-cabinet and bedside lighting are easy to do when planned from the start, but costly to undertake later.

Fit off, is when everything is joined up or made ‘live’, when lights are installed, and the front faces of the switches and power points are fitted. As well as thinking about task, mood and feature lighting, remember heating and smoke alarms, garden RCD safety power points and security lights.

Think about futureproofing; today we’re a society hooked on ‘tech’. In terms of electrics, this means mood lighting, surround sound, high-speed Wi-Fi, kitchen gadgets and TVs in the bathroom. Electrical circuits must be up to the job, so you need to plan. Do you want ethernet cable to every room to ensure uninterrupted Wi-Fi (or perhaps in just living spaces and bedrooms)?  Will you want speakers in each room or a security system?

For more information on Auckland electrical, electricians Auckland and Auckland electricians please go to www.aucklandelectrician.co.nz .