Ash Orbit Electrical — Domestic & light commercial electricians

Before you call

How we actually operate

Three things people ask in the first minute of a phone call, answered here so the call can be about your circuits instead.

Isolation windows

Power off in blocks, not all day

We split the work so each circuit is dead for the shortest useful window. Fridges, servers and shop tills get a named slot agreed before the van arrives — usually under ninety minutes.

On the van

Common parts travel with us

RCBOs, MCBs, standard accessories, 2.5mm and 6mm cable, glands and a spare consumer-unit chassis. Specified items are ordered against your written scope, never guessed at on site.

Sign-off

The person who tested, signs

Whoever holds the instruments completes and signs the certificate. No subcontracted signatures, no paperwork posted a fortnight later with someone else's name on it.

Four lanes

What we take on

We keep the list short on purpose. Each lane below is work we do weekly, with the scope, the realistic duration and what stays with you when we leave.

Lane 01

Fault tracing

Nuisance tripping, dead sockets, lights that dim when the kettle goes on. We split the installation and measure rather than replace parts hopefully until the symptom disappears.

Scope: Insulation resistance and continuity testing circuit by circuit, plus load sequencing to reproduce intermittent faults.
Typical time: Two to four hours for a house; a half day where the board has no circuit schedule.
You keep: A written fault report with the readings, and a fixed scope for any repair we recommend.

Lane 02

Circuit additions

New sockets, outdoor supplies, garden offices, kitchen and utility circuits. The question is rarely "can it be added" — it is whether the existing board and cable can carry it safely.

Scope: Load assessment, cable sizing for the run and the grouping, containment, then testing of the new circuit and the board it lands in.
Typical time: Half a day for a spur or outdoor supply; one to two days where floors or plaster are involved.
You keep: A minor works certificate and an updated circuit schedule inside the board.

Lane 03

Consumer unit upgrades

Replacing rewireable fuse boxes and early plastic boards with a metal enclosure and individual protection, so one fault no longer takes the whole house dark.

Scope: Pre-works testing of every existing circuit, main bonding checks, new enclosure and devices, full test and label-up afterwards.
Typical time: One day, with the supply off for most of it. Pre-works testing happens on an earlier visit so surprises are found before the board is off the wall.
You keep: An installation certificate, schedule of test results and a photographed circuit schedule.

Lane 04

EV charge points

Home and small-fleet charge points, including the awkward ones: shared driveways, detached garages, and boards that are already full.

Scope: Main fuse and earthing arrangement check, dedicated circuit, load management where the supply is tight, commissioning with the unit's own test sequence.
Typical time: Half a day for a garage-wall unit; longer for buried runs across a drive.
You keep: Installation certificate, commissioning record and the unit's registration details in your name.

Self-select

Work bands at a glance

Most enquiries land in one of five bands. Find yours, then tell us which one you think it is — being wrong is fine and costs nothing, but it makes the first conversation much faster.

Band × scope × interruption × documents

Indicative bands. Durations assume reasonable access and no hidden damage.
Band	Typical scope	Power interruption	Documents issued
Fault visit	Diagnose one reported symptom, isolate the cause, make safe.	Short, circuit by circuit.	Written fault report with readings.
Small works	Added socket, light, outdoor supply or accessory change.	One circuit, under an hour.	Minor electrical installation works certificate.
Board replacement	New consumer unit, bonding brought up to standard, full retest.	Whole supply, most of one day.	Installation certificate and schedule of test results.
Charge point	Dedicated circuit, earthing check, unit install and commissioning.	Supply off briefly at the cut-in.	Installation certificate and commissioning record.
Condition report	Inspection and testing of the whole installation, coded observations.	Planned outages per circuit, no cutting.	Condition report with coded remedial list.

Anatomy of a visit

Five steps, every time

The order never changes, whether it is one socket or a whole board. It is what keeps the disruption predictable and the paperwork honest.

Technician in protective gear checking equipment with hand tools beside a service panel — Survey first — instruments out before anything is opened up.

Step 01

Survey and isolation plan

We walk the installation, read the board, and agree which circuits go dead and when. Anything that must stay live — a freezer, a till, a server — is named on the plan before work starts.

Step 02

Test before touch

Readings are taken on the existing installation first. If there is a pre-existing problem in the walls, you find out about it before we are committed, not halfway through.

Step 03

Install or repair to the written scope

We work to the scope you approved. If the building argues with the plan — and old buildings do — we stop, show you, and price the change before continuing.

Step 04

Prove dead, prove live

Every circuit we touched is tested and proven, then the board is labelled so the next person can read it. Loose covers, missing blanks and unlabelled ways get fixed as a matter of course.

Step 05

Hand over the paperwork

Certificates, test results and a photograph of the finished board go to you the same day. Any observation we could not resolve is written down plainly with what it would take to fix.

Field notes

Three things worth knowing

Not sales copy — the explanations we end up giving on kitchen floors most weeks. Read them and you will brief any electrician better, including us.

Close view of gloved hands working carefully on equipment under a bright work light — Most diagnosis is reading, measuring and ruling out.

Read your consumer unit before you call

Open the flap and look at three things: whether the switches are labelled, whether one big switch protects everything or each way has its own, and whether the enclosure is plastic or metal.

Those three facts tell an electrician more than a long description of the symptom, and they usually decide whether you are looking at a repair or a replacement.

Individual protection beats one shared device

Older boards often put a single residual current device in front of half the house. One faulty appliance then takes the lights, the sockets and the freezer with it, and finding the culprit means unplugging things one at a time in the dark.

Individual devices per circuit cost more in parts and almost nothing in labour when the board is already coming off the wall. If you are replacing a board anyway, this is the upgrade worth having.

Cable size is a heat problem, not a power problem

People assume thicker cable means more power. It really means the cable can shed heat safely along its whole run — so length, insulation, bundling with other cables and going through a warm loft all change the answer.

That is why a quote for the same charge point can differ between two houses on the same street, and why "the cable that is already there" is sometimes not reusable.

Questions

Asked often, answered fully

Open any of these. If your question is not here, put it in the notes box on the form and we will answer it before quoting.

How do I know whether I need a new board or just a repair?

If the existing enclosure is sound, the circuits test clean and only one protective device has failed, a repair is the right answer and we will say so. A replacement becomes sensible when the board is rewireable, has no individual protection, cannot accept the device you need, or when testing shows several circuits near their limits.

What does a condition report actually check, and how long does it take?

It is a structured inspection plus live and dead testing of the whole installation: earthing and bonding, protective device suitability, insulation resistance, polarity, loop impedance and device operation, along with a visual check of accessories and enclosures. A typical house takes three to five hours; small commercial premises usually take a day. Circuits are switched off in turn, but nothing is dismantled.

Why does a breaker only trip when one particular appliance runs?

Usually because that appliance adds a small leakage current to whatever the circuit already has. Heating elements, older motors and damp outdoor equipment are common contributors. Each on its own sits under the threshold; together they cross it. We measure the standing leakage on the circuit first, then add loads one at a time — which is why bringing the offending appliance to the visit helps.

Does an EV charge point really need its own circuit?

Yes. A charge point draws near its maximum for hours at a time, which is a completely different demand from sockets used in bursts. It needs a dedicated circuit, correctly sized cable for its route, and a protective device suited to the unit's own internal protection. If your main supply cannot comfortably carry it, load management is fitted rather than hoping for the best.

Will the power be off all day?

Only for a board replacement, and even then we agree the window in advance and work to it. For everything else the outage is per circuit and short. Tell us at the enquiry stage what genuinely cannot lose power and we will plan around it, including evening slots for occupied shops and studios.

What certificate should I receive, and why does it matter?

A new or replaced circuit gets an installation certificate with a schedule of test results. An alteration to an existing circuit gets a minor works certificate. An inspection gets a condition report. These documents matter later: letting agents, insurers, surveyors and the next electrician all rely on them, and reconstructing them after the fact is far more expensive than issuing them at the time.

Can you work in an occupied home or a trading shop?

Most of our work is in occupied premises. We dust-sheet and cordon the working area, keep cable runs out of walkways, carry our own lighting for when circuits are dead, and clear up at the end of each day rather than the end of the job. For retail and hospitality we will usually work before opening or after close.

Book a visit

Tell us what the circuit is doing

A few lines is plenty. We reply with a proposed window, the band we think the work falls into, and what we would need to see before quoting properly.

Coverage: The north harbour districts and the villages along the ridge road. Further out by arrangement when the work justifies the travel.
Hours: Weekdays from early until mid-afternoon, with evening isolation slots for occupied commercial premises.
What helps: A photograph of your open consumer unit, and a note of anything that must stay powered while we work.

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