When to Call an Electrician: Electric Door and Gate Installations

Posted on by Egon

Installing an electric door and gate isn’t something you just do with a screwdriver and a Youtube video. There are a lot of electrical work that will need to be done to ensure that all of the work meets the legal and safety guidelines. If the work is done incorrectly, it can be a hazard and very costly. Additionally, it can cause others to be hurt and even cause problems that will make your insurance void.

Here is a brief overview of the electrical work needed for the automatic control and electric doors and gates and instances that will need a certified electrician.

Electrical Requirements for Automated Doors

Remote control and automatic access systems like electric gates and garage doors need to have a reliable electrically accessible main power supply. The motor units usually run off of 230V, like your home electrical systems, but in some cases like with big commercial systems, they can use three-phase power.

The supply needs to be enough for the motor load. Do...
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Electrical Safety for Automated Access Systems

Posted on by Egon

Electric gates and automated doors work great until something in the electrics goes wrong. Then the units become a liability for the business. Water gets into connections, cables become damaged, and all of a sudden, you've got an outdoor installation with mains voltage running through it while people walk by all day.

Safety reulations and accross the board standard safety practices are in place due to previous accidents that have happened. An untended piece of maintence on a control board, a gate becomes posotioned down on a person and traps them because the safety features are programmed wrong, a motor has a thermal runaway due to the wiring being out of standard and a fire is present. Addressing and executing safety modifications to these machines is crucial to safety.

RCD Protection Requirements

RCDs are the breaker switches in your consumer unit that go off when they detect a fault. They monitor the current flowing through a circuit and if some of it is leaking whe...
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How to save money whilst using your electrical appliances

Posted on by Olivia

With prices of pretty much all our household bills rising it’s important to consider where we can be saving energy and money. If your appliances are fairly new they should have energy efficiency ratings on them. When purchasing new appliances you should always opt for the most energy efficient ones as these will save you money in the long run.

Many appliance that use a lot of energy like a washing machine, dish washer or tumble dryer usually have an eco setting. Often people avoid these as it takes the appliance longer to run a cycle. This setting does however save energy, therefore money. In the case of a washing machine and dishwasher this setting uses less water and washes at a lower temperature saving lots of energy.

Lots of people wash their clothes at 40 degrees however most of the washing detergent companies state that their products work just as well washing at 30 degrees. By turning your washing machine down from 40 to 30 degrees you could be saving as much as 40% ...
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Having smart devices in your home

Posted on by Olivia

Over the last few years more and more smart devices are becoming available on the market. There are a number of different types of devices you can control through your smart phone or tablet such as lights, plugs, cameras and heating. Often you connect all of these smart devices to one main app or device such as an Alexa. This will then allow you to turn them on and off and create schedules for them. This can be really useful when you are away from home as you can make it appear as though people are in the house because the lights and TV etc can come on and off.

Some devices such as the Amazon Echo Show, allow you to video call your friends and family and also drop in on your device when you are away. Lots of people use these to drop in on their new puppy or to keep an eye on their home when on holiday. You do need to ensure that you have the devices set up correctly and that you set a password to make sure that they cannot be accessed without your permission as unfortunately the...
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Finding an electrician to carry out electrical work in your home

Posted on by Olivia

If you need any electrical work carrying out in your home then you need to be sure that you use the right person or company for the job. Although there is no legal requirement to become an electrician, certain jobs do require the person to have an accreditation. You may want to check that the person has valid insurance that would cover them in case anything they did went wrong. You should also try and find out about the experience they have and how long they have been doing the job as often this is very important.

Every so often there is a new edition released which has the latest information on regulations regarding electrical wiring. Even if the electrician hasn’t yet completed their course, they should still be aware of the changes that have been introduced and ensure that any work they carry out adheres to it.

If you have a trades person working in your house then try not to go out of the property and leave them on their own. If you do have to do this then try and only ...
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Security Shutters

Samson Doors are specialists in supplying SecurityShutters and high security electric roller doors to homes and businesses around the UK.

Automatic Swing Gates

Automatic Swing Gates , Automatic sliding, swing gates and access control systems for your property and your business.