Electrical
Some faults announce themselves. Others trip a breaker once a fortnight and behave perfectly while an electrician is standing there.
Published experience
30+years
Fault finding is a testing discipline: isolate, measure, eliminate. We work through the installation methodically rather than replacing parts and hoping.
We use our attention to detail to identify and solve problems that could be perceived by others as too difficult.
01 Electrical Fault Finding
An intermittent fault that trips an RCD is usually a real insulation problem somewhere in the installation. It does not fix itself, and resetting the breaker each time is not a solution.
Proper fault finding narrows it to a circuit, then to a section, then to the accessory or cable at fault — and records the readings that prove it.
02 Electrical Fault Finding
Fault finding starts at the board, because the device that operated has already told us something. An MCB responds to current, so it is reporting a short circuit or an overload. An RCD responds to current leaking to earth, which is a different fault with different tests behind it.
Establishing which of the two is in play before anything is dismantled decides what is worth measuring. The circuit is then opened at a sensible point in the middle — a junction box, an accessory, one leg of a ring. Each half is tested, and whichever half still carries the fault is split again.
Most of that work is done dead. A lighting circuit with a dozen points on it comes down to two or three suspects after a handful of tests, instead of a dozen fittings taken off the ceiling one at a time.
03 Electrical Fault Finding
An insulation resistance test applies a test voltage across a dead circuit and measures how much of it escapes — line to neutral, line to earth, neutral to earth. On an ordinary 230 V circuit the test is normally carried out at 500 V.
The readings that matter are the marginal ones. A circuit sitting at a couple of megohms is already on its way down, and the reasons are usually physical: damp in an outside junction box, a nail through a cable, a heating element breaking down, insulation cracked at a lampholder.
Comparing it against the other circuits in the same board often singles it out. Not every fault sits on one circuit, though. An oven element, a washing machine, an outdoor supply and a run of LED drivers can each let a small amount away to earth.
Put enough of those behind the same protective device and it operates, with no single circuit obviously at fault. Measuring the standing leakage and then removing loads one at a time separates a real insulation fault from a device simply carrying too much.
04 Electrical Fault Finding
A fault that is present can be measured. A fault that comes and goes has to be caught, provoked, or inferred from what it leaves behind, and that is what makes intermittent work different from the rest of an electrician's day.
Intermittent faults usually have a physical pattern behind them. Water finds its way into an outdoor accessory when it rains. An element pulls more current as it fails. A loose terminal expands as it warms and makes contact again as it cools. A cable shifts when a door swings or a floor is walked on.
Where the fault refuses to appear at all, testing moves onto what can be measured regardless — the condition of terminations, continuity of protective conductors, readings compared circuit against circuit. A circuit can also be left divided, so the next occurrence is already confined to one half of it.
Knowing when it happened and what was running at the time turns a random fault into a short list of circuits worth testing. Anything you can write down beforehand is worth more than it sounds.
05 Electrical Fault Finding
The thing that stopped working is frequently not the thing that failed. A dead socket at the end of a run can be in perfect order, the real fault a loose terminal two sockets back where a conductor has been heating and cooling for years.
Replace the dead socket and nothing changes except which accessory the problem surfaces on next time. A light fitting that keeps taking out lamps is the same story — lamps are cheap and quick to change, so several go in before anyone measures what is arriving at the fitting.
So a fault is not found when the symptom stops. It is found when a measurement that was wrong reads right and re-testing proves it. That is a harder standard than watching to see whether the trouble comes back.
06 On site
Coutts Electrical's own photographs of their own completed installations.
Photographs are Coutts Electrical's own, of their own completed work. Captions name the system type rather than a location, because the images are not tied to a named customer or town.
07 What customers said
Real reviews from the Google profile Coutts Electrical publish on their own site, reproduced word for word.
I had a bank holiday DIY emergency and needed someone to come out and make it safe and get our power back on. Coutts answered and Max was round within a couple of hours. Really easy communication, no hassle and easy to deal with, will definitely be using them for future jobs.
Very efficient service from Max and Alex. They made completing an Electrical Condition Report and then repairs where required in or office seamless and not intrusive at all. Really great for peace of mind. Thank you
Great service and price, Max follows up with paperwork and emails. So pleasant to find a proactive supplier
Very happy with electrical work undertaken by Max of Coutts Electrical, and his team. They installed an electric radiator and new light in the kitchen. They offered advice and were professional and tidy. Would highly recommend.
A fast, efficient, effective, reliable and highly professional company, most recommended.
Excellent and fast work, highly recommended!
Max and his team did a splendid job for usThey took great care to ensure that the right solutions were found and implemented. They completed the tasks on time, dealing with unexpected issues as they arose.Max and the team were friendly, polite, punctual and helpful.Everything was left neat and tidy.As we were unable to use our home until the work was completed we were also grateful that everything was done so quickly
Max responded very quickly to my request to review an electrical fault and efficiently dealt with the issue. I’m delighted that I’ve found Max and will definitely be calling upon him for any future electrical work.
08 Questions
Identifying the need for electrical maintenance in your home or business involves paying attention to signs and conducting periodic checks: Do you face frequent electrical issues – blown fuses, tripped circuit breakers, flickering lights, regular power outages? If your property has old wiring, it may be time for an upgrade. Do you get unusual odours or see sparks when using electrical outlets or switches? Have you experienced mild shocks when using appliances or switches of late? Sudden spikes in energy bills can also be a signal that you need electrical maintenance immediately. Our team will help you with inspections, repair, maintenance, and other crucial electrical services.
Because the repair is usually the last part of it. Dividing a circuit down means isolating it, opening it at each test point, taking readings, putting it back together and moving on, and most of the accessories that have to come off the wall to do that turn out not to be the ones at fault. Once the cause is identified the physical work is often small: a terminal remade, a length of cable replaced, an accessory changed.
They answer different questions. Fault finding is aimed at one symptom you already have, such as a circuit that trips or a socket with no power. An EICR is a scheduled inspection of the whole installation that reports on its overall condition. The two meet in the middle: if an EICR records a coded defect, tracing what is actually causing it is fault finding.
Not with any certainty, and it would be guesswork to try. What a description does give us is the shape of the problem: whether it looks like leakage or overcurrent, whether it is one circuit or the whole board, whether anything about the property has changed recently. That decides what we bring and where we begin testing. The diagnosis itself is made on site with instruments.
10 Start here
Tell us your postcode and roughly what you are after. We come out, survey it properly, and put a written price in front of you — with the VAT position confirmed on it.
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