Whether it’s screwing in a lightbulb or putting up a shelf, we all like to have a go at certain DIY tasks around the house. In some cases, that’s a great idea. It gets the job done quickly without you having to fork out any money.

However, there are some jobs you simply can’t do yourself. In this post, we’ll explore what electrical work you can do yourself, and which jobs are best left to the professionals.

Electrical DIY advice

Electrical Safety First, an organisation set up to raise awareness of the dangers of electricity, provides five guidelines when it comes to electrical DIY:

1. Locate cables in your walls
2. Use a residual current device
3. Shut off the power
4. Check power tools’ condition
5. Get advice from an electrician

However, the best advice we can give is to avoid it at all costs. Unlike decorating or re-pointing your walls, electrical work comes with serious risks – both to you and your home.

The dangers of electrical work

First and foremost, electrical work is seriously risky to your own wellbeing unless you’ve been fully trained. Research has shown that almost half of severe electric shocks happen through DIY. As well as causing burns and an unpleasant sensation, these shocks can cause tissue damage or even trigger a heart attack.

Here are the main errors:

• Cutting through power leads
• Drilling into wiring
• Repairing electrical items that are still switched on

However, performing electrical work without the right training can also pose a threat to your property. The same survey found that a third of registered electricians have seen electrical mishaps from DIY that resulted in significant repair costs.

Whether it’s a fire, explosion or just damage to your home’s wiring, attempting your own electrical work could set you back quite a bit. In many cases, it will cost more than it would have done to get a professional for the initial job.

Are there any electrical jobs that are safe?

All that said there are a few jobs you can do yourself. Small tasks like replacing a fuse in a plug or changing standard lightbulbs are obviously safe. However, you should always follow instructions if you’ve never changed a fuse before, and make sure you’ve got the right fuse for the appliance.

For anything bigger or more complex, we’d always advise getting an electrician’s help. Even if it’s just for guidance or reassurance, an electrician can make sure you don’t do any damage to yourself or your property and recommend the best course of action.

Professional electrical services

Whether it’s wiring, fittings or new appliances, the team at Smart Electricians provides expert electrical services for homes across Yorkshire. We work to the highest standards to make sure every installation is completely safe, so you can have complete peace of mind.

For more information on our services or to arrange a no obligation survey, give our team a call on 0330 043 2031.

How can outdoor lighting add that certain something to your home?

A case study from Smart Electricians; Sheffield's leading independent electrical installations team.

It’s a well-known fact in the electrician community that you will never get an outdoor lighting project in the warmth of summer and this one certainly wasn’t any different, but we certainly think it was worth braving freezing conditions and snow for the finished look. This outdoor lighting project in Sheffield which we carried out is a prime example of how effective outdoor lighting can be.

We started this project on our first week back to work in 2019. We had been quoting a few projects with J Wilson Gardening Services and this was the first project we had teamed up to complete. The whole garden was due to be renovated and the client specified that they would like the current lantern style lighting updated.

The Project Scope & Design

The great thing about this project is that our client was pretty open to any suggestions and ideas that we had, so we got to work with getting a plan and design together.

The work included lighting to the front garden bedders and we installed brushed chrome spike lights as they can be moved around for when the gardener is working. They can be used to light up different plants, trees and features within the bedder.

The specification of the project

We also installed brushed chrome downlights to the underside of the garage soffits and brushed chrome up and downlights to the porch, which all added definition and depth to the property.

All of the lighting to the front of the property are controlled via a time clock and two motion detectors positioned at each corner of the property. The time clock gives the customer more versatility for when they would like the lights to come on and stay on, and the motion detectors would activate should the time clock not be in the ‘on’ position when someone approaches the property. The motion detectors were positioned to pick up any movement from the electric gates and up the driveway.

Down either side of the property 10w LED security lights were installed to replace the existing old 100w Halogen lights which will give our customer a 90% energy saving. These lights are activated through the built-in motion detector and have a double switching option should our customer require them permanently on.

 At the rear of the property, we installed 11 low levels brushed chrome downlighters. We’re a huge fan of the KSR lighting range and all their products are great quality.

These were also controlled via a time clock that was situated in the garage...

Next Steps

If you have an upcoming garden lighting project please give our friendly team a call to organise your server.

Contact Us

Other services provided by Smart Electricians.

Looking for an electrician in Sheffield who can cater for projects such as outdoor lighting like this one or perhaps more internal and domestic projects? We are the leading independent electrician in Sheffield serving the surrounding areas of Sheffield and the region. You can see more about our services here, and be sure to check out our reviews!

Oh, and we have a blog we like to keep updated to give you plenty of free and open advice and tips for looking after your property and electrical provision!

The Moors Christmas Lights Switch On

A brilliant project for Sheffield's leading independent electrician!

Tis almost the season to be jolly and what a great opportunity Smart Electricians have had to help its patrons get into the festive spirit.

As a leading local electrician, we were recently approached to by The Christmas Lighting Company to undertake some repairs to the current power supplies that feed the fairy lights to the trees that line the pavements of The Moor, Sheffield.

The current power supplies had become unsafe for purpose due to deterioration and vandalism over the past couple of years and much of the control gear had corroded with a couple of years worth of pigeon poo and rainwater working its way into the connection boxes. The power supplies needed to be back up and running by a scheduled date ready for The Christmas lighting Company to come in and install the Christmas lights.

We liaised with The Moor Management team and agreed on a suitable date to undertake the works. We provided all relevant documentation including Risk assessments and method statements to the management team. We endeavored to ensure that minimal disruption was caused to The Moor, The Moor Management, vehicular and pedestrian traffic. All work was carried out to BS7671.

 

Carrying out electrical safety work on the Sheffield Christmas lights.

On the morning of the scheduled works, we reported to The More Management offices to sign in and collect the keys for the electricity boxes and parked our vehicles in the specified spaces. We offloaded our work barriers and padlocked them to a lamp post in a safe area whilst we diagnosed and highlighted which power supplies needed attention. Once we had come up with a plan of attack for the job we zoned off each area that required repair works using suitable work safety barriers. The Moor is one of Sheffield's busiest streets, we made sure our engineers used rucksack style tool bags to prevent any tools been left lying around or unattended during the works and only took the tools that would be needed for the job. We ensured the work areas were always manned by a minimum of one staff member. Health and safety measures were constantly monitored throughout the works.

On completion of the works when all the power had been reinstated and tested the site areas were cleared keys were returned and we signed out of the job!

Another delighted customer - the city of Sheffield!

The Moor management team were delighted with the delivery of our service from before the installation, delivery of the works and the professional nature of our work. We are thrilled to have been invited to carry out this work for our city and it is a great advert for the professional nature of our electrical work.

Electrician in Sheffield. Choosing a leading installation team.

The Moor management are thrilled with our work and we are confident you will be too. If you are in the hunt for a Sheffield based electrician with 5-star reviews and a dedicated eye for customer service and quality of work then you need to speak to Smart Electricians. 

Our services:

• Domestic Electrical Work
• Rewires for property
• Domestic and commercial electrical safety testing (EICR)
• Consumer unit upgrades

You can now also try out our innovative rewire calculator! If you need a require for your home or property in Sheffield and the surrounding rea, try it out! This will save you loads of time and money as you can build your own calculation to help manage your budgets!

House Rewire Cost Calculator

 

‘Don’t be afraid of change. You might lose something good, but you will gain something better’

You may have noticed many changes at Northshaw electrical lately.

We’ve been busy working behind the scenes over the last couple of months to develop a fresh new brand that captures who we are and what we are all about.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the changes you will see:

• new logo
• new website
• new blog
• new videos
• new social media profiles
• new eBook
• cool company swag (ok, yes we had that before!)

We are still the electricians you know and love, we’ve just got better looking.