Any assistance with emergency electrical repairs

bodeia

Sorry this is a bit long but:
Last Thursday we had a major shock – both literally and physically, our electrics have become dangerous.
Called the main electric board out who removed the main fuse into the house and told us we needed an electrician urgently. So we got someone out who had a look and found 2 things
1. We didn’t have a great earth coming into the house reading 24.3 Ohms when it should be less than 0.4 for an older property he said it seems like the house has never been earthed properly – so electric board came out and that bit was fixed yey
2. We now have no plug sockets as the wiring into then was the old rubberised cable and it had disintergrated and the electrician we called out had no option but to remove it from our very ancient fuse board.
After the socket ring main was removed from the fuse board and the earth fixed we were allowed to put out main fuse back in but with major warning that it was urgent we had a rewire.
So we do have light and heating again and we have a separate ring main from our kitchen that still has plug sockets that work but have none anywhere else. We have also been told we don’t have earth bonding to water or gas pipes making this very dangerous with the state of our electrics.
Currently we don’t have any saving after using the money while hubby was off work due to heart attack 2009 then a quadruple bypass in 2010 and he only returned to work in March this year. I’m currently on a work disability pay (permanent health insurance via work – still paying tax, NI and into a co. pension).
We tried for a loan, we both have perfect credit ratings, but as my hubby is temping his income isn’t counted and because mine is PHI neither is that (even though mine will be paid until I’m 60 with a 3% increase every year) so borrowing the money it seems is out of the question.
So my question is - Is there any help out there for people in our situation – seems like if we got a benefit we get help left right and centre but not if we have an income and can and are willing to pay it back.
Thanks for taking the time to read my post. Any advice would be appreciated.

squeekswhenwalking

Sounds like you are in a state, don't know of any grants. could you do any work yourself? a friendly elec may help you with the technical bits, but mostly the work is labourious.

ormus

if you have a good credit rating then try for a loan.
i know a couple who recently got a 5k loan from santander. (for home improvements).
she is disabled (top rate) and he claims IB.



ps
they applied online and got the answer in minutes.

DVardysShadow

I am assuming that if you had a loan, you could pay it back. So you can first of all save up and secondly, you can do the job in stages.

At the moment, with a 24 Ohm earth loop, an earth fault will be no higher than 10 Amps, which will not be enough to blow your larger fuses. You have a substantial fire risk, which you need to address immediately. Also with your old wiring, you have a risk of earth leakages which could put dangerous voltages onto metalwork.

So I would suggest the following program

1. Sort out the earth bonding to gas and water and get the electricity supplier to provide you with a cable sheath earth. [I assume from the age of your installation that a cable sheath earth will be available]. This will reduce the fire risk and if leakage currents do arise, it will prevent dangerous voltages arising
2. Get an RCD type earth leakage circuit breaker installed. This will cut off the supply if there are leakage currents. You do risk a lot of nuisance tripping, but this will be useful in indicating any wiring you need to deal with urgently
3. Get a new consumer unit installed - keeping the existing consumer unit and wiring in place. If money stretches do this at the same time as 2. Transfer any good circuits, such as your kitchen ring, to the new consumer unit
4. Rewire circuits such as upstairs lights to the new consumer unit as and when money stretches.

You may find that it is difficult to get this done this way and get Part P approvals. That's a difficult one. But as I see it, if the Part P approval stands in the way of getting the work done, it is more important to get the work done than to have the Part P approval. You may need to finish off by getting a regularisation certificate from the council.

rafal.d

Where do u live?
Possibly I can help you if you cower cost of materials.

ormus

local councils have a system of grants/loans which are tied to the property.
you can pay it back just like a commercial loan, or the monies can be paid back when the property is sold.
afaik, a commercial interest rate is added too.

ps
an average rewire should cost approx 2k-3k.