You'll find over 290 injuries a year involving electricity right here in the UK; most of them are in the home.
For those who have little ones in your home then you certainly are at greater risk of having an incident with electricity as a result of inquisitive nature of children. They're going to attempt to stick stuff in the sockets and are going to attempt to stick things in the DVD player. What we've got to do as parent is to minimize any electrical risks within our homes.
1.Firstly the Institute Of Electrical Engineers recommends having your domestic electrics checked every 10 years, and when you first move into your property. Should you be in rented accommodation then this frequency is every five years.
2.Make sure that all of your sockets are protected with an RCD unit, this unit is there to provide you with supplementary protection against electric shock, essentially its a safety device that has saved a lot of lives in the UK
3.Cover all unused sockets with socket covers to stop the child poking objects into them, far better still put a piece of household furniture in the way if possible to stop them getting to the socket in the first place.
4.If you have to use extension leads then make certain that they are secure i.e. no damage to the cable insulation and also do not run them beneath carpets and keep well out of the way of small children, children have been known to chew the cable.
5.Never run extension leads off extension leads, when you are short of sockets then get a qualified electrician in to add more for you as opposed to putting your home at risk from fire
6.Do not allow children to play with electrical appliances under any circumstance.
7.Do not allow electrical cables to dangle down in order that children can pull on them and thus pull the device on top of themselves, mainly table lamps and Televisions
You will need to follow these simple safety tips to keep your house safe, particularly this time of year when we are thinking of bringing our Xmas Lights down from the loft. Each and every year there are fires that have been started off by badly maintained Xmas lights. Our suggestion with Christmas lighting would be to buy low voltage lights and that way you lessen the chance from electric shock as most low voltage lights are 24 volts DC. Just be sure to take the transformer out from the socket every night, don't rely on just turning them off from the switch. When you purchase Christmas lights be sure to buy the kinds that have the CE safety mark on them to ensure the quality.