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Emergency electrician in Bromley

For an electrical emergency in Bromley, Beckenham or Orpington, check whether neighbours have power first. If they do not, call 105 for UK Power Networks. If only your home is off, or something smells hot, switch off at the main switch if safe and call an emergency electrician to make it safe and find the fault.

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Bromley

Electrician in Bromley

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

The homes in Bromley

Bromley is London's largest borough by area and its housing is more spread out than most. The Valuation Office Agency counts 14% of its 143,430 homes as detached, the highest share of the areas we cover, plus 24% semis and 5% bungalows. Almost 30% were built between the wars, in places like Petts Wood, West Wickham and Orpington, and 27% from 1945 to 1972. Beckenham and Penge have older Victorian terraces. Bigger plots mean more garden lighting, garages, sheds and garden offices fed from the house, and more cable buried in the ground.

Garden lights, outbuildings and rain

A common Bromley call is an RCD that trips when it rains. Outside lights, garden sockets and the supply to a shed or garden office are exposed to water, and old outdoor fittings let it in. Buried cable that was laid without proper protection can also be damaged by digging or roots. If the trip only happens in wet weather, switch off the outside circuit and leave the rest of the house on. An electrician can test the outdoor circuit, find where water is getting in and replace fittings with ones rated for outdoor use. Our advice on electrics tripping when it rains goes into more detail.

Garden offices built in recent years often have their own small consumer unit at the outbuilding, fed by a buried cable from the house. If the outbuilding trips but the house is fine, the fault is usually in the outbuilding or the cable to it.

Interwar and post war homes in Petts Wood and Orpington

Homes built in the 1920s, 30s, 50s and 60s were first wired with cable that has long since been replaced in most houses. Where it has not, Electrical Safety First notes that black rubber cable was phased out in the 1960s. Rubber insulation crumbles with age and can cause tripping, heat at sockets and shocks. Many of these homes also still have a fuse box from a 1970s or 80s rewire, with no RCD protection. A new consumer unit, fitted to the current wiring rules and certified under Part P, is one of the most common upgrades here.

Large houses in Chislehurst and Keston, and who to call

Bigger houses often have more than one consumer unit, a sub board in a garage or annexe, and long cable runs. When something trips, it can be hard to tell which board it came from. Labelling every board and circuit after a fault is found saves time on the next call. Bromley is served by UK Power Networks, so for a cut that affects the street, call 105.

For a power cut affecting the street, call 105 or check the UK Power Networks map. For a fault inside your home or garden, an electrician. Notifiable work, such as a new circuit to a garden office or a new consumer unit, is self certified by a registered competent person or notified to the London Borough of Bromley's building control. If you have a large garden with lights and outbuildings, label which circuits feed them. It saves time when something trips at night.

Most asked for in Bromley