No blank spacers installed in consumer units is potentially a very dangerous situation, the home owner or tenant could easily stick a screwdriver, finger or even their whole hand into this consumer unit and easily come in contact with live conductive parts. This is one of the most common EICR C1 codes that we come across in Cyprus. Even new consumer units installations by electricians claiming to be City & Guilds qualified still installing plastic consumer units (plastic consumer units no longer comply with IEE wiring regulations) and then with open spaces for any untrained user in the home to stick their fingers into.

Call the professional electrician in Limassol that cares about your safety and working to the latest wiring regulations, call Limassol Electrician 24/7, English speaking, U.K. trained and qualified electrician in Limassol Cyprus.

VOELCB means voltage operated earth leakage circuit breakers, these old design of earth leakage circuit breakers are not the same as modern RCD (residual current device) circuit breakers. We still in 2023 come across Crabtree VOELCB as the only means of earth leakage protection for the entire electrical installation of now modernised and renovated homes. These VOELCB do not protect against electric shock in many cases of dangerous fault currents flowing to earth and must be replaced immediately if your home in Cyprus still has one as the main switch earth leakage device.  Check your meter cabinet and if you have a black main switch VOELCB call Limassol Electrician 24/7 today for an urgent appointment to have this unsafe unit replaced with a modern RCD main switch in compliance with the 18th Edition of the wiring regulations.

In this excellent video John Ward clearly explains the many dangers to home owners and tenants living in Cyprus homes that still have VOELCB devices fitted at the main supply.

Limassol Electrician 24/7 electrical inspection and testing for Cyprus homes. EICR electrical inspection condition report for home owners, landlords and home buyers across Cyprus, Limassol, Larnaca, Paphos, Nicosia. Call Cyprus Electrician 24/7 for all your electrical wiring safety checks.

• Cyprus home buyers electrical survey
• Electrical inspection of home wiring for landlords of property in Cyprus
• Electrical safety check of wiring installation for Limassol homes and apartments

Example video of whats involved in doing a full EICR, many large homes in Cyprus have multiple consumer units on 3 phase systems, many large properties we visit have more than 30 circuits, each circuit needs to be inspected and tested in accordance with BS 7671 wiring regulations (Cyprus wiring regulations is the same as U.K.).

1. Anyone offering to carry out electrical work in your home needs to be qualified electrician and have a electrical contractors license issued by the EMS department of the Cyprus government.  Always ask to their electrical contractors license before employing anyone to do electrical work in your home. The photo on the license should be that of the person you are hiring. Confirm that the license is for "electrical contractor" and not a electrical maintenance license or wireman license, that latter two do not permit someone to carry out changes to your electrical circuits whilst working on their own.  We see lots of builders, plumbers and handymen carrying out electrical installations in Cyprus without the necessary training, qualifications and test equipment (see number 3 below) to do such jobs safely and legally.  i.e, plumbers who replace water heater elements without a loop impedance tester to confirm the electrical circuit to the water heater is actually safe to reconnect, builders who instal 13 amp socket outlets, kitchen and bathroom lights with no means of testing to confirm the circuit wiring is safe to reconnect. ​ Because a circuit was live before, it DOES NOT mean you can simply reconnect the wires and assume its safe, it must be retested with a multifunction electricians test meter and the results recorded on a 'Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate' in accordance with BS 7671 wiring regulations. (See example of our test sheets below).
2. Is your electrician a registered professional or cash in hand part timer? Anyone offering to work for you directly in your home needs to be legally employed by a registered Limited company, or registered as self employed. They should provide you with a invoice for all all payments with their TIC number and VAT number if applicable. Why does this matter? A registered professional electrician is more likely to come back if there's a problem than a cheap cash in hand part timer, don't you agree?
3. Check the electricians experience. Electricians who only work on building sites carrying out new installations may have little to no experience in short circuit fault finding, circuit overload and earth leakage fault currents in large houses with old wiring systems. One of the biggest clues to this is the amount of "electricians" we come across in Cyprus that DO NOT own a electricians multifunction test meter that covers RCD testing, loop impedance, PSC, Insulation resistance and continuity testing. Why don't they own one? Because these type of multifunction test meters can cost nearly €1,000 by the time imported to Cyprus. As stated under the wiring regulations, every professional electrician working in your home must have such a test meter and know how to use it. You should ask to see their multifunction test meter along with their electrical contractors license.  This is the one I have, I'll be happy to demonstrate it to you at anytime. 
4. Everybody knows a cheap electrician in Cyprus, usually a family friend or relative.  We get this comparison all the time with our emergency service night time rates, tenants in rented accommodation will call us at night on weekends with main switch tripping problems (loss of all power to the property),  the've tried calling their landlord but he's in bed and tells the tenant to find their own electrician as his electrician is not answering the phone (why would he at midnight), they then Google 24 hour electrician Limassol and of course we are always number one in the search results, we go out to the property with our 36 years of experience, professional test equipment and thousands of Euros worth of tools, we find the cause of the earth leakage fault and get their power on, we retest everything and report on any further work needed, the tenant pays the bill and everyone is happy.  THEN, usually about 2 days later we get a call from the landlord, complaining that we charged too much as his own electrician (friend of the family, relative) would have done the job a lot cheaper, the only problem is his electrician does not answer the phone at night, especially during weekends as he prefers to sleep...sounds reasonable, also he's not an emergency electrician and has a nice Monday to Friday electrician job working for someone else.  Sure there are lots of "cheap electricians" in Cyprus that love getting cash jobs when it suits them (no VAT and no self employed social insurance to pay), just don't compare it to what professional legally operating emergency electricians offer.

As qualified and licensed electricians, we can provide certificates as required for electrical installations - BS 7671 (IET wiring regulations).  Something your unqualified handyman, plumber, gardener or builder cannot.
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Next important article you may be interested in, "Main switch electricity problems Cyprus electrician" in older Cyprus homes.