Please note Red Kite is now closed to new business in the Reading area. Red Kite is recommending Phase & Neutral Electrical Services to all customers looking for a quality job at a fair price. Thank you to all of Red Kite's customers since 2006. Red Kite is having a summer off. Red Kite will relaunch in the Bournemouth and Poole area in the autumn.

What Red Kite does Operated by an electrician with up to date City & Guilds qualifications (2377, 2382 & 2391) relevant to the new 17th edition of the wiring regulations. I am a member of the National Association of Professional Inspectors and Testers (NAPIT). This means I am able to self certify my work under Part P of the building regulations. You can find out what this means for householders and DIY electricians at the NAPIT web site (as far as you, the customer are concerned this is exactly the same as the National Inspection Council for Electrical Industry Contracting, the NICEIC). I was formerly a member of the NICEIC's Domestic Installer scheme. You can check my status at the Official Government Competent Persons web site. I am also an experienced and qualified computer engineer so I can deal with your computer problems or set up a home wifi network for you. Orientated around the needs of the domestic market we can take care of all your home and small business electrical and networking needs; Safety advice (see below) Rewiring Wiring extensions New Lighting & Down lighters Fuse box replacement Data networking, and IT advice and installation Internal work External work Inspections and reports Boiler control systems Solar photovoltaics Caversham Park Village specialist Electrical safety -why modern consumer units make you and your family safer An old fashioned re-wirable fuse board like the one shown below contains, as the name suggests, fuses. What is a fuse? A thin piece of wire that literally burns away (or ’blows’) if too much electricity passes through it due to a fault, or if the electric devices on a circuit try to draw more electricity than the cable is designed to supply. Any burning process is potentially hazardous, even if it works properly. But it is very easy for the wrong grade of fuse wire to be used. If this has been done the fuse may not ’blow’ when it should. This could lead to more electricity passing through the cables than they are designed to use. This causes over heating in the cables. The cables will be damaged, and it increases fire risk. This sort of damage is shown in the picture below. A modern consumer unit, like the one here, uses circuit breakers and residual current devices (rcd) that break (or trip) the circuit without heat and burning. They cannot be re-wired incorrectly. Once the problem that caused the trip is removed they can be reset at the flick of a switch. Rcds are a further great leap forward in electrical safety. From 1 July 2008 they became, effectively, compulsory for all circuits in UK homes. I have found two very good videos on U Tube which explain why you and yours will be much safer if you get your electrical installation rcd protected; RCD protection video 1 RCD protection video 2 (alright they don't know what rcd stands for but other wise their demos are great-don't try them at home....) If your cables are in good condition the change to a consumer unit need not involve extensive re-wiring of your property. It can probably be achieved without huge expense or disruption. It may even save expensive re-wiring bills later. It will certainly improve electrical safety. In the meantime, if you can't get your home rcd protected, the very least you should do is buy yourself a plug in rcd -and make sure you use it when using electrical equipment outside. If you have any concerns about the state of your fuse board or the wiring in your house, or would like to discuss what getting rcd protection invloves give Red Kite a call for a free no obligation opinion. In the meantime if you have already got a new consumer unit, and a circuit breaker or rcd keeps tripping have a look the best electrical advice page on the Internet, to help you figure out whether you really need to call Red Kite Electrical. Local estimates Red Kite Electrical -a quality job, at a fair price No obligation estimates done for properties within 20 miles of Red Kite's home base. Other than for the most straightforward jobs Red Kite does not give fixed price quotes. Why? It is not possible to give an accurate assessment of how much work even quite small electrical jobs involve until tests to confirm the safety of your existing wiring. Not only is all Red Kite work done to the highest standard it is always certificated -you get a legal document from us proving the work has been done correctly. Even in the era of Part P regulations, many electrical jobs are done without regard to BS7671 -better known as the Wiring Regulations. This is possible because it is easy to make electrical circuits work. The more difficult part is to prove that they are safe before they have mains electricity put through them. There are many ways to cut corners that will not be apparent to the lay person, and many of these tricks can save unscrupulous traders a lot of time and money. We do not play these games. Doing the work properly costs more. It is because there are still many people doing electrical work who do not take any notice of the regulations, or the law, that Red Kite is regularly asked to provide certificates for work done by other 'electricians'. This is not possible -the best that can be done is a periodic inspection, which may not satisfy your local authority building control department. This is why, if you are intending to obtain competitive quotes it is unlikely that Red Kite will be the cheapest. However, if a competitive quote is significantly cheaper than Red Kite's estimate you should ask yourself why -if you do not get a completion certificate and local authority building control become aware of this you may have a serious problem at the end of your project. If you need to get electrical work done on a budget, the best way to save money is not to accept the cheapest quote, but to do some of the work yourself, leaving Red Kite to do only those elements of the work that need a qualified specialist. There is more on this option on the on the advice page, under the section on Part P. Can we tidy and vacuum up after we finish? Yes we can, but we still expect to get paid as electricians whilst we are doing so. So you may prefer to do some of this work yourself. So how do we price work? Red Kite uses a fixed daily rate, agreed at the outset of a job. In exchange for this fair deal all materials are sold to the customer at cost, including the benefit of our wholesale discount. Time estimates are provided at the outset, and all contingencies discussed with the customer at the earliest opportunity. This system is the fairest to both parties. It even allows the customer to change the work specification during the job, with no detriment to either side. Finally a couple of points about payment; Yes we accept cash. But the price is the same as paying by cheque or BACS transfer (which is actually how we prefer to get paid). We do not currently take credit or debit cards. Currently Red Kite's labour is free of VAT, so the daily rate agreed is the price you pay. Prices for materials will be quoted including VAT, so that will also be the price you actually pay. There are no hidden extras. Contact Address: 17 Burnham Rise, Emmer Green, Reading, RG4 8XJ Telephone: 0118 9076342 Mobile: 0788 2737402 Email: sparks@redkiteelectrical.co.uk (please cut and paste this address into your emailer -it does keep the spam at bay) Can Red Kite Electrical recommend a plumber? I am often asked if I know any good plumbers. For a long time my response was; 'Well I know a lot of plumbers' However, I'm happy to point my customers to John Stumbles. Anyone who devotes as much of his web site to telling one what he wont do is clearly a man with the same trading values as myself. Richard Hall Owner of Red Kite Electrical