How safe is your existing Installation?

Check your fuse board for any last inspection labels, installations that have not been inspected and tested for more than ten years should be checked again.

Check all your plate switches (light switches and sockets) for cracks or damage that may give you or a toddler access to live parts. Are they all secure? Are there any screws missing?

Check the light switches, switches mounted on wooded backgrounds, or which have a very small rocker switch, are a good indication that your installation is quite old.

There should be no provision in a bath, shower or washroom to plug in any electrical equipment, other than shaver sockets which have been specially designed, tested and deemed suitable and safe for that zone.
All light or shower switches inside the bathroom should be of the pull cord type.

Look up to at your ceiling lights if the cable that holds your lamp is of the two core twisted type and not round flex. Again this indicates an ageing installation.

Look at your fuse board. Do you still have the pull out re-wirable fuses? Do you have an earth leakage device to protect your downstairs sockets? (This is a trip switch with the letters RCD, RCCB or RCBO written on it).

Check your incoming services. Metal water, gas and oil pipes must all be bonded to earth. There should be a green and yellow earth wire clamped to your water pipe within the vicinity of your main water stop cock. Likewise, there should also be one in your gas meter box or if your meter is internal, it should be near the gas shut off valve.
Incoming oil pipes should be bonded at the point of entry to your building. The green and yellow wire should be approximately the size of a pencil in diameter. It may be a little smaller if your home is fed from an overhead system.
Solely green wires also indicate quite an old system.

You may have one, however the earlier types were designed to trip at 100mA fault current, now they should 30mA to protect your downstairs sockets).
Modern fuse boards with MCB’s (miniature circuit breakers) are more user friendly, they trip much faster and after a fault has cleared they can be reset by hand. There is also the added benefit of not being able to fit the wrong size fuse wire.