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Emergency electrician in Harrow

For an electrical emergency in Harrow, check neighbours first. If the street is off, call 105 for UK Power Networks. If only your home is off, or a socket smells hot, switch off at the main switch if safe and call an emergency electrician. In Harrow's 1930s semis, old fuse boxes and mixed era wiring are common causes.

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Harrow

Electrician in Harrow

Tell us what is wrong and where. If it might be a power cut, check the street first and call 105.

The homes in Harrow

Harrow is the most interwar borough we cover. The Valuation Office Agency counts 52% of its 96,860 homes as built between 1919 and 1939, more than half, and just 3% before 1900. This is Metroland: rows of semis in Rayners Lane, North Harrow, Kenton, Pinner and Headstone, built as the railway reached out from Baker Street. 31% of homes are semis. Most were first wired in the 1930s and rewired at least once since, often in the 1960s or 70s. That later wiring is now 50 or more years old in many homes, and plenty still have the fuse box that went in with it.

Old fuse boxes in Harrow semis

A fuse box with wire fuses, a wooden back board and no RCD protection is common in Harrow homes that have not had electrical work for decades. These boards protect against overload but cannot detect current leaking to earth, which is what an RCD does. Replacing one is notifiable work under Part P, so it must be done by an electrician registered with a competent person scheme or notified to Harrow Council's building control. The circuits should be tested first, because older wiring often has small faults that a new board will trip on. Our advice on replacing an old fuse box in a 1930s semi goes through it.

Extensions, lofts and mixed wiring

Many Harrow semis have a rear extension, a loft conversion or a garage conversion, each wired at a different time. That leaves a mix of cable types and sometimes circuits that run between floors in unexpected ways. When the electrics keep tripping, the fault is often at a joint between old and new work. Testing circuit by circuit finds it. Our tripping checklist explains what you can safely check yourself first.

A rear extension is often fed from a spur or a separate small board in the kitchen, and loft rooms may take their lighting from the floor below. When a fault is hard to find, a plan of which circuit feeds which room is the first thing an electrician will draw up.

Rubber cable, buying a semi and who to call

Electrical Safety First says black rubber cable was phased out in the 1960s. In homes rewired just before then, short lengths of it can survive in the loft, under floorboards or feeding an old outside light, even when the rest of the house has newer cable. It gets brittle, and the insulation can fall away when disturbed.

For a power cut affecting the street, call 105 or check the UK Power Networks map. For faults inside your home, an electrician. Notifiable work is self certified by a registered competent person or notified to Harrow Council's building control. If you are buying an interwar semi in Harrow, an EICR before you exchange tells you whether the wiring and fuse box are likely to need work. Electrical Safety First recommends owner occupiers have the electrics inspected at least every 10 years.

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