LB ElectricalsTen-minute electrical safety checks anyone can do
By Lewis Burton, city & guilds qualified ·
Most domestic electrical problems announce themselves well before they become dangerous. The trouble is that the warning signs are quiet ones — a slightly warm socket, a faint smell, a light that flickers when the boiler fires — and they're easy to live alongside for years.
None of what follows requires tools, and none of it involves taking anything apart. If a check leads you somewhere that needs a screwdriver, that's the point at which it stops being a DIY job.
Press the test button on your RCD
There's a button marked 'T' or 'Test' on the RCD in your fuse box. It's meant to be pressed every six months, and in most houses it has never been pressed at all.
Press it. The RCD should trip instantly, killing the power to everything it protects. Switch it back on. That's the whole exercise — you have just proved that the device standing between your family and an electric shock actually works mechanically.
If it doesn't trip when you press the button, you have a serious problem: the protection you think you have is not there. Get it looked at, not next month.
Set a reminder before you do anything else — turn the power off to something that matters (a desktop PC, a router mid-call, a freezer) and you'll only forget once.
Feel for heat, look for brown
Heat is the tell for a loose connection, and loose connections are what start electrical fires. Go round the house and put the back of your hand on sockets and switches, particularly the ones running something heavy — the washing machine, the tumble dryer, the electric heater, the extension lead behind the TV.
They should be at room temperature. Warm is not normal. Hot is a phone call.
At the same time, look for discolouration. Brown or yellow staining around a socket's pin holes, or around a plug's pins, is scorch marking from arcing. It doesn't clean off and it doesn't get better. Same for any smell of hot plastic or fish — that's overheating insulation, and it's the smell people describe after the event as 'I did notice something, actually'.
The extension lead audit
Ten minutes, and it's the highest-value thing on this list for most households.
- No extension lead plugged into another extension lead. Ever.
- Nothing high-power on an extension lead: no heaters, no kettles, no tumble dryers, no washing machines, no air fryers. These belong in a wall socket.
- Unwind coiled extension reels fully before use — a coiled reel under load gets hot enough to melt itself.
- Bin the ones with a cracked case, a damaged cable, or pins that have gone brown.
- If a room permanently runs on a tangle of extension leads, it needs more sockets. That's a small, cheap, tidy job and it removes a real risk.
Look at the fuse box itself
You don't need to open it. Look at the front. Is there a big switch labelled RCD, or a row of devices with test buttons? If there is nothing of the sort — if you're looking at ceramic carriers with fuse wire in them, or a wooden back board — then the installation has no earth-leakage protection at all, and that is the single biggest safety gap most older houses have.
Is anything discoloured, cracked, or warm? Is the board itself warm? Can you actually tell what each way feeds, or is the labelling a faded biro guess from 1994? That last one isn't a safety issue in itself, but in an emergency, at night, in the dark, it very much is.
Outside and in the bathroom
Outdoors is where earth leakage turns dangerous, because you're standing on wet ground. Check that outside sockets have intact covers that actually close and seal, that outdoor lights aren't cracked or full of water, and that no indoor extension lead is running out through a window to power something in the garden. That last one is extremely common and genuinely dangerous.
In the bathroom, the rule is simple: no sockets except a shaver socket, no pull cords that are frayed or discoloured, no light fittings dripping condensation. Anything electrical near a bath or shower has specific requirements around it, and a bathroom that's been altered by a previous owner is worth having someone look at.
When to stop and call someone
Call an electrician if: your RCD doesn't trip when you press the test button; anything is warm, scorched or smells hot; you have a fuse box with fuse wire in it; your lights dim noticeably when the shower or kettle comes on; or you have no RCD protection on the sockets or anything outdoors.
And if you want the objective version of all of this — measured rather than eyeballed — that's what an EICR is for. It's the difference between 'it looks alright' and a set of test results across every circuit in the house.
Lewis covers Doncaster, Sheffield & South Yorkshire. If something on this list turned up in your house, call 07467 381272.
Frequently asked questions
How often should I press the RCD test button?
Every six months is the usual advice. It takes five seconds and it's the only way to know the device works. Do it when the clocks change and you'll remember.
Is a warm plug socket normal?
No. A socket may be very slightly warm if something drawing heavy current has been plugged into it for hours, but anything you'd describe as warm to the touch — and certainly anything hot — points at a loose connection, and loose connections are how electrical fires start.
Are extension leads dangerous?
A decent one, used sensibly, is fine. Daisy-chained together, run under a rug, coiled up under load, or powering a heater — that's when they become one of the most common causes of domestic electrical fires. If you rely on them permanently, you need more sockets.
My lights dim when the shower comes on. Is that a problem?
A tiny, momentary flicker as a big load starts can be normal. A noticeable, sustained dim is not — it suggests a high-resistance connection or an overloaded supply, and it's worth having someone test it rather than getting used to it.