Electrical safety at home
For more than a year now, lots of us have been working at home and while that’s not an entirely new concept for some of us, others have had to create makeshift workspaces on kitchen tables, in kids’ bedrooms and even in garden sheds.
To cope with the need to keep our laptops, phones, printers and extra screens active, we’ve had extra need for extension cables and multi-socket adapters.
But apart from the trip hazards presented by cables trailing along the floor, have you ever considered just how hard we’re pushing the electrics in our homes?
Here’s a quick guide to essential safety tips for home electrical equipment:
Know your amps
For the less technically minded of us, an amp is a measure of how much electrical charge is passing through a point at any time.
Typically, a kettle uses around 13 amps while in use, a toaster uses around five to 10 while a TV screen can run on less than two amps.
A standard extension lead can usually allow about 13 amps at any one time, so it’s important to know what you’re using through your sockets to avoid overheating, damage, burning plastic smells, blown fuses and in some cases, electrical fires.
How to prevent overloads
Most appliances contain information on how many amps they take to run either in their instruction manual or on the appliance themselves on a safety label or sticker.
All you need to do is add up the amps running through a socket at any one time and make sure you’re not exceeding the amount.
This handy guide from Electrical Safety First on common electrical items and their amp ratings can help you to have a quick look at what you’ve got plugged in and identify any potential hazards in the home. Here's a quick rundown of how much power some common household appliances and items are using when switched on:
You can also check out this handy socket calculator for working out if what you’ve got plugged in is safe.
Service with respect
There are few things more infuriating than poor customer service and not feeling like you’re being listened to.
Add to that the three national lockdowns, the denial of support through friends and family and fewer options to de-stress ourselves and you have a recipe for anxiety, shorter tempers and less patience.
It’s only normal that we can get a little grumpy or angry when something goes wrong and you just want it fixed. On rare occasions however, members of our team from across our business are subjected to abuse.
In fact, 80% of the UK’s workforce are in customer facing roles and nearly half of those say they have experienced abuse during the pandemic.
Every day we deal with thousands of calls from customers all over the country every day and while we know we don’t always get it right, you should always be treated with respect and receive a friendly and professional service when you speak to us.