Frequently asked questions

Yes. Stephen holds a completed electrical apprenticeship, the Level 3 NVQ in Installing Electrotechnical Systems and Equipment, the Level 3 Award in Inspection and Testing (2391), the Level 3 EV charging equipment installation qualification, and works to BS 7671, the 18th Edition Wiring Regulations. All staff are qualified and up to date with current regulations.

Yes. S. Sparham Electrical carries £1 million of public liability insurance, and all work is covered by a 12-month guarantee.

Ripley, Belper, Derby, Heanor, Ilkeston, Alfreton, Matlock, Chesterfield, Nottingham and Eastwood, plus the towns and villages around them across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. If your town is not listed it is still worth ringing, because the list is the main areas rather than a hard boundary.

Call or text 07557 448945, or send a photo of the job on WhatsApp. For anything small, a photograph and a description are often enough to give you a figure without anyone coming out. Larger work such as a rewire or a consumer unit change needs looking at properly first. Quotes are free and there is no obligation.

No. Quotations are free.

All three. Domestic work makes up most of it, but the business also covers commercial premises such as shops, offices and salons, and industrial work including three-phase distribution and machinery supplies.

Yes, where one applies. A new circuit or a rewire gets an Electrical Installation Certificate. An addition or alteration to an existing circuit gets a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate. An inspection gets an Electrical Installation Condition Report. All of them carry the test results and all are worth keeping, because you will be asked for them when you sell or let the property.

Yes, for 12 months. If something is not right after we have left, we come back and put it right.

For most jobs somebody needs to let us in and be there at the end, but you do not need to stand over the work. Several of our customers have left us with access to the property and come back to it finished and locked up.

Honest answer: chasing walls and lifting floors makes a mess while it is happening. What matters is what it looks like afterwards. Everything gets cleaned down and taken away, because leaving somebody’s house full of dust and offcuts is not finishing the job.

Where we can. A dangerous fault, a burning smell or a dead circuit in an occupied property gets treated as urgent. Call 07557 448945 and you will be told honestly when somebody can get to you, rather than being promised a time that will not happen.

Yes. Landlord work is planned around changeover dates, and commercial jobs are planned around trading hours or shutdown windows so the work does not cost more in lost business than it does in labour.

Most domestic changeovers are a single day. The power is off for the bulk of it, because every circuit has to be disconnected, re-terminated and then tested. If the testing finds a fault on an existing circuit, that has to be put right before the new board can be signed off, which can add time.

No. There is no law forcing you to replace a working fuse board in your own home. But replacing a consumer unit is notifiable work under Part P of the Building Regulations in England and Wales, so once you do it, it has to be either carried out by someone registered with a competent person scheme or notified to your local building control beforehand.

On a typical three-bedroom house allow around five to ten days on site, split between first fix and second fix with the plastering in between. It depends heavily on access: a house with solid floors and no loft space takes longer than one with suspended timber floors and a clear roof void.

Not usually, but it is easier if you can, particularly on a full rewire where every room gets disturbed at some point. If you are staying put, the work can be phased so you keep power and heating overnight. Say so up front and it gets planned that way.

In England, private rented properties need a satisfactory EICR at least every five years under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, or sooner if the report itself specifies a shorter interval. A copy goes to the existing tenants and to any new tenant before they move in.

C1 is danger present, so somebody is at risk right now and it is made safe before we leave. C2 is potentially dangerous, meaning it would become a danger under fault conditions. C3 is an improvement recommendation, which does not make a report unsatisfactory. FI means further investigation is needed. Any C1 or C2 makes the overall report unsatisfactory until it is put right.

An RCD trips when it detects current leaking to earth. Common causes are a faulty appliance such as a kettle, an immersion heater or a washing machine, water in an outside socket or light, damaged cable, or accumulated small leakages across several circuits adding up to enough to trip. Unplugging everything on the affected circuit and switching back on is the quickest way to tell whether it is an appliance or the wiring.

Usually, yes. Testing locates a fault to a section of circuit rather than a whole house, so a floor might come up in one spot rather than everywhere. Some faults, particularly in buried cable, do mean opening something up, but only after the testing says where.

Fewer than most people expect. It depends on ceiling height, beam angle and lamp output, but a regular grid of identical downlights usually over-lights the middle of the floor and under-lights the worktops and corners where you actually need it. It is worth setting out around the tasks in the room instead.

Almost always a compatibility problem. Older dimmers were designed for filament lamps and need a minimum load that LEDs never draw, which causes flicker, buzz or a refusal to switch off fully. A trailing-edge dimmer rated for LED, matched to the lamps, is normally the fix.

Most straightforward domestic installations are half a day to a day. Longer cable runs, a consumer unit with no spare capacity, or an earthing arrangement that needs an electrode adding will push it out.

A three-pin granny cable works but is slow, typically around 2.3kW, so a full charge takes most of a day or longer. It also puts a socket and its circuit under a continuous heavy load for hours at a time, which they were never really designed for. It is fine occasionally and a poor idea as the everyday method.

Often yes. A ring final circuit will usually take additional sockets, provided the circuit is in good condition, correctly protected and not already heavily loaded. It gets tested first, because extending a circuit that already has a fault on it just spreads the problem.

In England and Wales, adding a socket to an existing circuit outside a special location is not normally notifiable. A new circuit is, and so is any work in a bathroom or shower room. Notifiable work is either self-certified by an electrician registered with a competent person scheme or notified to building control first.

Twice. First fix once the structure and stud work are up but before plastering, and second fix once decorating is far enough on to fit accessories without damaging them. Booking both slots early avoids the common problem of a plasterer standing waiting.

Yes, and it is usually how these jobs run. Sequencing gets agreed with whoever is running the site so first and second fix land at the right point and no other trade is held up.

Fewer, well positioned, beats more badly positioned. Most homes are covered by two to four: the main approach, the rear, and any side access or vulnerable outbuilding. It is worth walking the property before deciding rather than buying a boxed set of eight.

For a permanent installation, yes. Wired cameras get power and data down one run, do not drop off the network, and do not need batteries changing. Wireless has its place where cabling genuinely cannot be run, at the cost of reliability.

It is a bad idea. Extension leads are not rated for permanent outdoor use, the cable is not protected against damage, and there is usually no RCD protection at the far end. A proper armoured supply is not a big job and it removes the risk entirely.

Armoured cable in a garden should be deep enough to be clear of normal digging and cultivation, with marker tape laid above it so anybody who does dig finds the warning before the cable. Route it sensibly too: straight runs along known lines are easier to avoid than something that wanders across a lawn.

Yes. Three-phase distribution, machinery supplies and industrial control gear are part of the commercial and industrial side of the business.

Yes, and on most industrial jobs it is the sensible way round. Shutdown windows and out-of-hours slots are agreed when the job is planned so the work does not cost more in lost production than it does in labour.

Yes. A single socket, a light fitting, an extractor fan or a switch that has stopped working are all normal work. Grouping a few small items into one visit is usually the sensible way to do it.

Yes, whoever carried out the report. Send the report over and each coded item can be gone through so you know what actually has to be done to satisfy it and what is a recommendation you can weigh up.