Electrical Safety at Home During Coronavirus
With Covid 19 still with us and for the foreseeable future, we’re going to dedicate this week’s post to staying safe in your home during the pandemic with your electrics. We hope you find it useful. We realise that for most of us, unless we’re essential key workers, we’re going to be spending a lot more time at home. With this in mind, it’s important to stay safe with our electrics as well because if we are going to be spending more time in the home, either homeschooling or working, then we’re going to be using the power much more often.
Working From Home During Lockdown
We’ve come up with a few tips for looking after any items which are reliant on electrical charging. Whatever you do, never charge something while leaving the item on a bed or on the sofa. They can overheat and then catch fire, and it doesn’t take long for a fire to spread. Try not to overload your sockets either because this could also cause a fire hazard. Naturally, there may be more of you than usual in the home, so there’s going to be more demand for sockets and chargers. If you’re in charge of a large extension lead don’t think that it’s compulsory to use all of it and overstuff it with plugs.
Unplug Before Bed
Always make sure that everything is unplugged when you go to bed and especially when you’ve stopped using something, don’t just leave it plugged in to the wall, but unattached to the item you were charging/using. Some curious hands, or paws for that matter, could start playing with them and end up getting an electric shock.
Mixing and matching devices to chargers - never a great idea
It’s also not necessary to keep charging something after it’s been fully charged, once it’s reached 100% take it out of the socket and pull the cable from the item. It’s also important to make sure to always use the correct charger for the device you’re using. Mixing and matching your devices is never a good idea as it can lead to overheating. Because you’ll be working in areas with much less space, perhaps even sharing it with young children, keep liquids away from laptops and desktops, anything attached to the mains really, because liquids and electricity do not a happy bedfellow make!
Charging, Devices and DIY
Try to keep an eye on any electrical toys your children have, and that they are charging the correct devices. Phones shouldn’t be under the pillow at night as they can overheat. If you’re thinking of carrying out any DIY during your lockdown isolation, be careful and vigilant. Always make sure you’ve switched off the power at the fusebox before you attempt any work on wiring.
Never leave cooking unattended and all appliances should be registered
As at any time of year it’s important not leave cooking unattended. If you can try to get all your appliances registered as safe to use, if they’re registered with the manufacturer, you can call them if something goes wrong. If you have any questions about this you can speak to us about it, and when you buy something new make sure it has had all the necessary safety checks and carries the British Kitemark.
RML Electrical - Expert Electricians
If you have any questions about what we’ve discussed today or have concerns regarding your electrics, contact us and one of our expert electricians will be more than happy to help you.