With just 5 days to go until Christmas Day, this is a third and final instalment of our blog post about electrical safety at Christmas.

We have covered the importance of checking your Christmas lights and when to use a registered electrician in St Albans, London or Hertfordshire like Fulcher Edwards Ltd. Another equally important thing to do over Christmas is testing your smoke alarm.

This is the time of year when you have more lights, candles, extensions leads and generally put your electrical system under more strain than normal. Your fire risk goes up unfortunately so therefore testing your smoke alarm has never been more important. The Fire and Rescue Service have very useful information on their website as below;

Maintaining your smoke alarm

To keep your smoke alarm in good working order, you should:

  • test it once a month, by pressing the test button until the alarm sounds
  • change the battery once a year (unless it’s a ten-year alarm)
  • replace the whole unit every ten years
  • clean your smoke alarm once every three months using the soft brush of your vacuum cleaner. This will ensure you remove any excess dust or insects.

You may see us use a hashtag on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook every Tuesday that says #testittuesday as we like to remind people like the rest of our industry of the importance of testing smoke alarms, fire alarms and emergency lighting. All of these things may help save a life! So a smoke alarm its not just for Christmas but something you should test all year round.

If you don’t have a smoke alarm or think you may need more than your local registered electrician can assist you with this. Fulcher Edwards Ltd installs Aico Alarms in our clients properties as they are one of the leading manufactuers.

We are NICEIC approved electrical contractors that cover St. Albans, Watford, Bushey, Radlett, Hemel Hempstead and most of Hertfordshire and even London, so why not get in touch with us for a free quotation by using the Contact Us form on our blog or website.

smoke detector of fire alarm in action electricians in st albans

smoke detector of fire alarm in action, white background