…..normal?! With TFL confirming the tube was at its busiest it has been since before Covid, and many people returning to their office, it does make you feel like things may just be feeling a little bit more normal. With us hearing news like this, and the sun shining, its making us extra productive in the FE office today, hence finally doing a blog post after so long! (Sorry!)

Needing a Commercial Electrician

Is your work place now at full capacity? Then your property maintenance should also be back to normal, especially Emergency Lighting Testing, Fire Alarm Testing, PAT and your 5 yearly electrical testing aka Electrical Installation Condition Reports. All these things are paramount to keeping your team/staff safe. Plus you’re building insurance may have a clause in it to say maintenance needs to be up to date.

A Domestic Installer

How about your home? Without it being cluttered with that desk and work you’ve had  the last year or so, do you now have time and space to get that electrical work done you we’re thinking about? Different lighting perhaps just incase that desk does return some day!

Landlords Electrician

Are you a landlord or Managing Agent? Are you tenants now happy for electricians to come in their home to carry out essential landlord testing and maintenance.

If its one thing a global pandemic does, its make you realise you should be living life in the moment and get those things done you have been putting off. We spend most of our time at home and the office, so why not make it the best and the safest it can be for you, your staff and tenants.

Fulcher Edwards is based is St. Albans but we cover most parts of Hertfordshire and London. We are NICEIC and SafeContractor accredited, so you know you are in safe hands, plus we offer free no obligation quotations, so why not get in touch with us today by calling 01923 616985 or via our contact form on our website.

Sorry its been a while since we last posted on our blog, but in our defence its been a crazy time what with the Global Pandemic, various lockdowns, homeschooling, new family additions and life in general! Its been an experience that’s for sure but there is some light at the end of the tunnel now so hopefully we can get back to updating this more often now.

We wanted to share some good news with you to say that we recently passed our NICEIC audit for another year, which means that one thing you can guarantee at the moment is when you are looking for a registered electrician, you can be assured that we are Approved NICEIC contractors and Domestic Installers.

As we are on both of the NICEIC schemes, we can carry out works in residential and commercial properties. We can carry out Part P works of the Building Regs. Whatever you need, we are the electricians who can carry this out for you.

We are based in St. Albans but work all over Herts and parts of London so get in touch for a free, no obligation, quotation and see what a great service we can offer.

NICEIC Certificate – Censeo House

In these strange times, we are all spending a lot more time at home and in the garden (if we are lucky enough!)  So we thought we’d give you a mini guide to something we all have in our homes and probably take for granted that they’re keeping us safe.

Fuse Boxes – also known as Consumer Units – are used to control and distribute electricity around our homes.

You probably know where your fuse box is located in your home.  It is important in case we ever need to turn the electricity off in an emergency.

A fuse box contains three things:

1. Mains Switch

This allows you to turn off the electricity supply, and so should be easily accessible.  Some homes will have more than one mains switch if there is more than one fuse box.

2. Circuit Breakers or Fuses

Most homes built after 1960 will have circuit breakers. These are automatic protection devices that switch off a circuit if they detect a fault.  Despite being a similar size to fuses, they offer more precise protection.  If they “trip”, you can reset the switch after finding and correcting the fault.

Fuses have a piece of special fuse running between two screws.  If a fault occurs, or in the event of an overload, the fuse wire will become hot and melt.  The melted fuse then breaks the circuit, disconnecting it and keeping you safe.

3. RCDs

RCDs (residual current devices) are switches that trip a circuit under certain conditions and disconnect the electricity supply.  If it detects an imbalance in current, or electricity flowing down an unintended path, it will switch the circuit off, reducing the risk of death or serious injury from an electric shock.

If you have a wooden back on your fuse box, a mixture of fuses and circuit breakers, or no RCD protection, then you might benefit from upgrading to a new consumer unit that would offer you more protection.  It is also worth considering if you are planning an extension or an improvement project or your fuse box is overloaded.

A professionally installed consumer unit by a certified electrician will improve your electrical safety as well as put your mind at rest by checking the integrity of the existing circuits in your property.

Fulcher Edwards carries out all types of electrical services, including fuse box replacement in homes in and around St. Albans. Why not give us a call us today for a free quotation on 01923 616985 or drop us an email on our Contact Us Page.

Following the Governments recent announcement regarding the Coronavirus lockdown, the construction and manufacturing industry are encouraged to start operating again as long as they can provide and maintain social distancing and good hygiene.

Some of our clients have been in touch with us ahead of them returning to their workplace to make sure their building is ready for their return so whether that be relamping, carrying out remedial works following recent electrical testing or making sure they are still compliant with their buildings safety testing.

Where to start? – One area we really want clients to think about prior to their return, whether thats as soon as this week or in the coming months, is their emergency lighting.

If your emergency lighting hasn’t been tested recently then it should be before the premises reopens and staff return to an operational building. This then ensures the batteries are charged and all the emergency luminaries are going to work in an emergency as they will be how your staff will be able to evacuate safely from the building.

It’s important to remember that emergency lighting in a building also assists the emergency services such as The Fire Brigade to enter, carry out their important work and leave the building safely also.

Emergency Lighting Testing  – We are still able to go in and test your emergency lighting in your business premises even if you are not there as it is classed as essential maintenance. We just need access to be given and social distancing to be adhered to for the sake of our electricians and any staff that may be on site.

How can we help? – If you want to discuss if your building is ready prior to returning then why not get in touch with us. We can assist any businesses in St. Albans and surrounding areas not just the manufacturing and Construction industry, so please let us know if we can be of any assistance.

For now we hope everyone continues to stay safe!

We hope everyone is keeping safe and well during this lockdown period. We are still following Government Guidelines and our electricians only carrying out essential electrical works and maintenance mainly in and around the St. Albans area.

We wanted to share some happy news with you as some of our customers were aware that our Operations Manager Claire, (she’s the one you are likely to speak to first when you contact us!) was expecting a baby in April, well we are pleased to let you know that baby girl Darcy has now arrived safely and mother and baby are doing really well.

Of course the Coronavirus has made this a difficult time in terms of Darcy meeting her family for now and the team at Fulcher Edwards but we hope it won’t be long!!!

As we are a family business this time is still uncertain for us, like many small businesses, though we are hopeful that once the lockdown has been lifted we may get some enquiries that will keep us afloat. For now we will remain positive and will be enjoying our new family member even if it is mainly on FaceTime!

We are still monitoring emails and can assist with any emergency call outs you may have so feel free to contact us still via our website, call us on 01923 616985 or drop us an email at info@fulcheredwards.co.uk

Stay safe everyone!

You may have noticed Fulcher Edwards like to remind you guys each week to Test It Tuesday aka #TestItTuesday via our Twitter, Facebook and our Instagram page. We do this EVERY Tuesday!

The reason we do this life can get in the way and its very easy to forget to test your smoke alarm and it could save your life.

We know with everything going on right now with Coronavirus is taking up a lot of our attention and rightly so, its a scary unusual time for us all. However, as most of us our working from home and schooling from home currently, its never been a better time to get into the habit of testing your smoke alarm each week.

Smoke alarms require very little maintenance but you want to know it will work should a fire break out at your property and you will only know if it will work effectively if it is tested regularly to make sure it’s working. A simple press of the test button on the alarm will show you instantly and could save lives.

If you don’t have any smoke alarms in your home or landlords property currently then why not get in touch and we can advise what you need, how many and where. All our electricians are Aico Approved Installers and can suggest the right ones for you. Quotations are free.

Though we are only carrying out essential works we can still provide you with quotations and discuss any requirements you may have

smoke detector of fire alarm in action, white background

. Just contact us via our website or give us a call on 01923 616985.

Just before life got a little different for us all with the Coronavirus pandemic, Fulcher Edwards moved offices and we just wanted to inform you of our new contact details!

Don’t worry we are still in St. Albans but now in the town centre in a lovely building called Censeo House which is in St. Peters Street, not far from where the famous St. Albans market is held each week!

If we are your chosen electrical services and maintenance provider then please update your details to the following with regards to our correspondence address;

Censeo House

6 St. Peter’s Street

St. Albans

Herts AL1 3LF

All other details remain the same, so you can still contact us on 01923 616985 and our email is info@fulcheredwards.co.uk so if you need an electrician at your home or business in St. Albans or surrounding areas then please get in touch for a free quotation.  We are still operating though only for essential and emergency electrical works and of course working from homes whilst we are all isolating during the Coronavirus pandemic, but we are still taking calls and receiving emails so happy to discuss any plans you might be considering in the future.

Keep well, from all the team at FE.

What a week eh! I don’t think any of us could have prepared for what we are currently facing with the Coronavirus pandemic.

Like many businesses, big or small in St. Albans Fulcher Edwards Ltd have had to temporarily close our electrical services family business following Government Guidelines but also thinking of the health and wellbeing of our customers, electricians, wholesalers and all members of our team.

Like the rest of the country, this will be short lived but in the meantime we wanted to assure our customers that you can still contact us by calling us on 01923 616985 or email us at info@fulcheredwards.co.uk should you be in need of an emergency electrician in St Albans, London or Hertfordshire with any urgent queries.

We will still be contacting our customers whose fire alarm and emergency lighting we maintain as this is classed as essential maintenance works. If you have an emergency call out still please still call the emergency call out number on your fire alarm panel.

We hope it won’t be too long before we are back to normal and our electricians are back assisting you in your homes and businesses in and around St. Albans, but until then please keep safe and well, we will get through this! You may still see us update our Social Media platforms like our Facebook page, Twitter or Instagram during this is time and we will try and share any useful information on our blog.

For now take care and a big thank you to our wonderful NHS, from all the team at FE.

In today’s world of increasing energy costs and concerns about energy efficiency, it is quite a challenge to work out the best way to provide effective and efficient heating in large premises, such as a warehouse.

It is important to provide staff with a comfortable working environment – it can make a huge difference to how safe they are and how much work they get done.  It can actually make a difference to bottom line profit too.

So how do you do this whilst still keeping costs down and reducing carbon footprint?

There are a few different options to choose from, which should really be determined by the size and shape of your unit.

Warm air heating systems are one of the most popular ways to heat a warehouse.  A warm air heater heats the air which creates a comfortable working environment.  Air is passed through a heat exchanger that increases its temperature.  The warmed air is then distributed through the space by a fan.  The air is distributed around the space evenly, so that there aren’t any cold spots and the temperature is consistent.

Radiant heating is another option.  It works by emitting infrared radiation from the hot surface of the heater.  Unlike warm air heaters, radiant heaters do not heat the air, but rather objects and people.  Any heated object then in itself becomes a secondary heater, providing another source of heat. Radiant heating is very energy efficient as it only delivers heat where needed. This type of heating is usually placed in warehouse areas that lead to the outside, such as loading bays.

Destratification fans can also help reduce energy consumption with a warm air system by returning the warm air from the roof space back to the floor where it will be felt.  This keeps heating costs down and increases the efficiency of the main heating systems.

The Carbon Trust estimates that the use of Destratification fans in industrial buildings with high ceilings, operating a warm air heating system, can reduce energy consumption by 20%.

At Fulcher Edwards Ltd we have the experience, knowledge and professionalism to carry out heating installations for your business, big or small.

CALL US now to find out how we could help you and your business.

Fulcher Edwards has been assisting Managing Agents in St. Albans, Herts and London for many years with electrical maintenance, Electrical Installation Condition Reports and Portable Appliance Testing plus much more. Whether you are an agent in St. Albans with a number of landlord properties on your system or your are a residents in a building that has its own Management committee, we can provide a service that helps you rather than hinders you.

For example this week we are carrying out 9 EIC Reports in residential properties which has been planned to a tee! Each resident knows when and who will be attending their property and what work is involved. Once all the properties have been tested each resident will have their own copy of the EIC Report for their records and so will the Managing Committee.

What Makes Our Service Different?  – We also send our reminders when electrical testing and maintenance is due so you don’t have to worry about it. Our full list of services includes all aspects of works required by an electrician such as testing, installation, fault find finding and general maintenance. We also offer Fire Risk Assessments, fire extinguisher servicing, air conditioning installation and maintenance.

Insured Workmanship & Accreditations  – Fulcher Edwards has Public Liability Insurance of £10 Million which can also be increased upon request. We are also NICEIC Registered Electrical Contractors and are SafeContractor and Trustmark accredited for your piece of mind.

Find Out More – If you are looking for an Electrical Services Company in St. Albans that will make sure your properties comply with Current British Standards then why not get in touch with us so we can provide you with a free quotation and discuss our services.

You can read some reviews about our service on Google also by searching for Fulcher Edwards Ltd St. Albans or on Yell.com. Feel free to get in touch for more information at info@fulcheredwards.co.uk or 01923 616985.