The principle benefits are that now, LED lamps can give a pleasing light effect and comparable light output compared to the traditional 50W halogen lamp but at a fraction of the running cost and with a much longer lamp life.

I have been installing some of these LED fittings for the last 6 months or so and thought it would be good to post up some pictures of some cool products that are affordable and easy to use as an alternative to Halogen lighting.

I did the electrics for this little bathroom below and put some nice bright LED’s in the floor and some Halers LED downlights in the ceiling as an alternative to the traditional 50W halogen lighting.

Bathroom Floor and Ceiling LED

 The Floor lights give a nice decorative or mood effect and the ceiling lights provide the main lighting.

I used Halers LED downlights in the example above. At only 8W they consume less than a 5th of the energy of the halogen alternative and as you can see provide a nice light effect.  

Halers LED downlight

The benefit of this product are explained best at the Halers web site: http://www.halers.com/ (other brands are available!)

There is also a tilt/ eyeball fitting which is great for wall washing effects:

Halers LED tilt downlight

For just installing something cool and flash I put in these blue LED floor lights to another bathroom.

Bathroom Floor LED Lights

So if you are looking for lighting that is modern, cheap to run and has a little bit of the ‘wow factor’ consider some LED lights.

Aside from the day-to-day electrical work (which has been quite a lot of kitchen upgrades lately – more to come on those…), I thought I would post some pictures of a faulty shower pull cord I was called out to have a look at:

DIY horror - shower pull cord

Ok – not the greatest picture in the world but you might just be able to make out the brown live melting away and the black deposit on the pull cord switch. Whats going on here I thought… A quick look in the fuse box reveals more of the same:

DIY Horror - shower cable

The shower cable (with no 30mA RCD protection for the shower) and more melting live conductors but in old cable colours… the plot thickens!

After a bit of routing around I found a junction box behind a panel where a new shower cable had been connected to an old shower cable:

DIY Horror - Shower Cable Junction Box

Those who know your electrical colours will observe the in-correct polarity with Live connected to shower cable Neutral and Neutral connected to shower cable Live. A serious and Dangerous scenario leaving a high risk of electric shock and a high risk of fire.

A bit of explanation and discussion with the customer led to them deciding to undertake a full electrical check of the house wiring. A replacement consumer unit, now with full 30mA RCD protection across all circuits, has been installed:

Safety first with new 30mA RCD Protection consumer unit

On a lighter note I have uploaded details of the recently completed electrical installation for Somerset Yurts and their facilities building – full details in the projects gallery.

Somerset Yurts Camping - luxury style!

kitchen first fix

kitchen first fix work

This kitchen has sockets and power for appliances/ cooker and some under cupboard lights. The thing to get right at this stage is making sure all the back boxes are nice and level!

first fix work

I like to install the cables in conduit where possible so if there is a requirement to remove and replace cables at a later stage this is easy to do and does not require any making good or re-plastering.

I have also found the time to add another project to the ‘Projects Gallery’. A recent completion of the electrics for a house extension is now available to view – see full details on the Projects Gallery menu.

The Electrical Safety Council among others have been campaigning to raise public awareness of the benefits of upgrading your fuse board to include 30mA RCD protection (http://www.esc.org.uk/public/news-and-campaigns/news/news/article/industry-gets-behind-rcd-campaign/), and I am getting more customer enquiries for this type of installation work. Hopefully the beneficial message is filtering through to the public.

Below are two fuse boxes (or consumer units) that I upgraded last week.

The first was this older style Square D consumer unit.

No RCD at this fuse box

I undertook full Inspection and Testing of all circuits to ensure they were suitable for re-connection to the new RCD protected fuse box. The only fault on this occasion was a lack of earth bonding (equi-potential bonding) to the water and gas supplies. A serious fault but easy to remedy…

Inside the new fuse box with the cover offOrder restored with a new RCD protection fuse box

The customer wanted quite a few spare ways for a future project so we installed a larger than currently required consumer unit.

Another customer wanted to upgrade their consumer unit.

Typical Fuse box with no RCD Protection

Again, a process of Inspection and Testing of all circuits was undertaken to ensure that the circuits comply with the regulations (BS7671: 2008).

This particular installation had a few faults that needed to be remedied including a partial re-wire to the lighting circuits to ensure continuous earth as well as upgrades to the earth equi-potential bonding.

Order restored with a new RCD Protection fuse box

All works completed, certified and notified under Part P.

If you are thinking about upgrading your consumer unit I would be very glad to hear from you. I provide a free and no obligation written quote for the work after a site visit. I also explain everything in plain english! For more information please contact me…

roger@fordhomeelectrics.co.uk

Tel: 07914 901 203

Over the next weeks and months I will be using this space to update photos and details of electrical installations I have been doing, interesting electrical installation information, and any news and information from the electrical industry which is relevant to customers old and new.

Thanks for coming to have a look, please get in contact if you would like a quote for some work or require further information.

Roger Ford

Ford Home Electrics

roger@fordhomeelectrics.co.uk | Tel: 07914 901 203