To keep your premises safe and operational, a qualified and fully trained electrician is essential. 

These points will help you narrow your choices to choose the best electrician according to your needs. 

• License and Insurance– While shortlisting, make sure the person is a licensed electrician. Licensing ensures that they have attained the required qualification and have adequate experience to perform the job efficiently. Check the license to understand the type of work they have mastered, and to select the right person for the right job. It is of no use if you finalize a commercial electrician with technical knowledge about internal circuits, for a home development project. The electrician also must have insurance and should be credited with the local board. 
• Punctuality – Punctuality is essential in an electrician. Electricians are responsible for all the major wiring work in a place. If you are hiring someone for your business or home, you would, essentially, be placing your life and the lives of your employees in his/ her hands. A punctual person takes his/ her work seriously and is responsive to detailing and feedback. Electricians arriving late to the workplace could be sloppy or tardy and may skip crucial points.
• Pocket-friendly– Many good quality electricians offer their services for a competitive fee. Opt for an electrician with an affordable, fair, and transparent pricing policy. This policy implies that there shouldn’t be any hidden cost for the services offered. Also, the taxes applicable should be noted down in writing before the service. 
• Qualified and trained personnel– An electrician should be qualified so that he/she has adequate knowledge of all electrical equipment. Similarly, the electrician should be experienced and well trained to identify faults and provide proper electrical solutions. Choose a master electrician with at least three years of experience. This, in turn, guarantees a high standard of quality and safety. While hiring the electrician, let him/her know that you want energy-saving and cost-effective products installed. 
• Friendly attitude– An electrician should make the customer feel comfortable. He should be warm and work according to the Occupational Health and Safety guidelines. Depending on the job and time needed, he should be ready to provide extra service if required. 
• Professionalism– The electrician you hire should be professional at all times. He/ she should be neat and tidy, respectful, and should maintain the highest standards of professional conduct with other workers. Some also offer a warranty/ guarantee on work done, wherever possible. While this is not the norm, you could make relevant enquiries.
• Reviews – Past customers and clients review most electricians in the UK on social media and local networks. Before making a decision, you should always check all the reviews. While some may seem biased, a fair number would be genuine and authentic. Ethical and reviewed electricians have a fair pricing policy. They do not overcharge for any of their services, instead, comply with the market standards. 
• Quotation – He should provide a written quote of services. This adds to their reliability and goodwill. A written quote makes future claims easy. It also helps you measure the deliverables in the event of a delay. Try receiving at least three quotes from different electricians before finalizing one. 
• Impeccable services – Select an electrician who can provide a myriad of services. Starting from 24 hour emergency service, rewiring, fault finding, smoke/heat detection, periodical services for electrical checks, to testing of electrical appliances, inspection and repairs. Competent electricians provide all the services that you need.
• 24-hour emergency service– An electrician service is considered efficient if he/she is available for 24×7 emergencies. This way, electrical problems at night can be resolved without a loss of property or life.
• Provision for upgrades– The enhancements in the present UK voltage and daily load increase in your home and shops are causing a significant impact on your wiring. The electrician must be able to work with these upgrades. This would drive out the expense of rewiring. 
• Honest advice– An electrician who gives candid information on the best practices for your home or business would be ideal. 
• Reference– A good electrician should provide past references of clients. If you have a small job that needs fixing, this might not matter much. However, if you are planning to outsource the entire electrical project of a residence, or commercial building, you should check for previous references. 

In a nutshell, an electrician in Hove must fulfil the above standards and should be able to handle all aspects of the installations. 

 

Business owners are always at risk of losing their businesses to fires and other natural calamities. Fires can start due to many reasons – a short circuit, incorrect wiring, overheating, or an earthquake. There are endless causes that can cause fires. As a result, there is loss of life and property, valuable information is lost, and many small to medium-sized businesses cannot sustain the costs of rebuilding after a fire. 

It is crucial to know the fire risks and safety hazards in the workplace. Businesses are required by law to have safety exit doors for all employees and personnel. In case of emergencies, fire alarms help people understand the urgency of the life-threatening conditions surrounding them. They can evacuate in a hurry and save their lives. Fire alarm systems help monitor fire threats and help protect human life. Fire alarms also help protect property and assets. 

Fire alarm monitoring systems help understand the gravity of the situation even if the building is empty and unoccupied. They help business owners notify emergency and fire personnel to curb the fire and stop it from spreading. 

 

How do fire alarms work?

Fire alarms are of two types – those that run on building power and those that are battery operated. Some fire alarm systems also come as a combination of both to prevent a misfired warning in case of a power outage. These battery-powered fire alarms offer a secondary source of power to the sound system. 

•     If the alarm is a battery-powered one, business owners need to ensure that the batteries are changed at regular intervals to avoid battery failure. If the battery is in an inaccessible place on the system, it could be challenging to change. There is a fire alarm company in London that performs routine battery checks of all the batteries in such fire alarm systems. They also check the life cycles of the cells and ensure that they are charged or replaced immediately to help avoid the loss of property, assets, and life. 
•     Some batteries may last a few years, while some last a decade. Batteries that last a decade tend to be ignored and may malfunction over the long term.
•     The fire alarms work by detecting smoke particles in the air. Some fire alarms also detect unusual spikes in an increase of heat. Combination fire alarm systems also offer detection of carbon monoxide levels and smoke particles (small and large). Depending upon the type of fire alarm you choose, you can also avail of emergency lighting features and decibel control in some alarms. 

 

Why are fire alarms important?

Safety is the key concern when one thinks of fire alarms. Modern fire alarms are well evolved. Some have wall buttons that can be pushed to sound the alarm, whereas others have automatic fire and smoke detectors.

There has been a steady rise in fires since 2015, and the British government saw a phenomenal surge in fire breakouts in 2017. Since then, there have been strict regulations on properties to secure premises and have sound fire alarm processes, maintenance, and exit strategies in place. 

Business owners can face serious legislative consequences if they fail to provide proper fire safety logs and maintenance records. Fire alarms are covered by BS 5839-1:2013 fire detection and fire alarm systems. This is the code for design, maintenance, installation, and commissioning of fire safety audits in non-residential properties. Commercial properties are at a higher risk than residential properties since they are left unattended during the nights and over most weekends. Many fires tend to break out without supervision. 

Fire alarms help notify the police and emergency services in case of a breakout. Immediate care and attention are given in case an alarm is raised. Most fire alarm maintenance systems are routed with unique signals for emergency service protocols for prompt action. 

Since fire alarm systems help protect valuable life, assets, and property, business owners have to, legally, provide safe and secure exits, fire safety hazard notices, fire extinguishers, fire alarms, maintenance, and security protocols for all. 

Additionally, commercial property owners have to carry out mandatory fire safety drills and tests every quarter. They also have to run regular tests conducted by professionals (appointed by government officials) for inspection and servicing. 

 

What happens after installing fire alarms?

After installing fire alarms for businesses, other areas of fire safety protocols need to be followed like adequate water supply for sprinkler systems, fire training for personnel and employees, safety drills and walkthroughs for all exit points, and fire alarm panels.

Choosing the right type of web hosting can be confusing, especially with the amount of variety out there. In this article we’ll show you the types of hosting out there and which one is best for you.

 

Web Hosting Basics

Lets start with the basics, “Web Hosting” is a term used to host your website on the internet, without this and a domain name users on the internet are unable to see you. You’ll need to find a reliable provider and a relatively near server location to give you the best performance e.g if you live in London then Web Hosting UK would be a good choice.

Firstly you’ll need to find a domain provider to decide what your website is going to be called, this is also your brand so give this some thought. You’ll also need to decide where you are targeting such as a .co.uk domain extension for mainly targeting the UK or .com if you want to be seen internationally.

 

Research Your Hosting Provider

Once you’ve chosen your domain name and registered it you’ll need find a provider to host to begin designing and uploading your files, this can be with the same provider or a different one of your choosing. Remember to do your research before choosing a provider and check out some of the options:

Find an established provider – They is 1000’s of providers wanting to host your website, find a provider which has been around for a while and has a thorough understanding of your requirements.

Support is crucial, research a provider that you can contact at short notice should your website suddenly go offline.

Check out the companies reviews, this will give you a better understanding if their service is great or poor.

Server uptime is very important, have a look at their terms and uptime service agreement (SLA).

Request a trial to test out the speed of their server and what software is included.

 

Understanding Hosting Types

They is several different types of web hosting that you can now choose depending on what your hosting provider offers, these are:

Shared hosting – For new and small websites that dont need much resources this is usually the best starting option.

Cloud hosting – For websites which need more resources and more CPU intensive, this option would be chosen.

Reseller hosting – For those that want to sell web hosting this is a great starting point saving you costs on having to buy your own server and house it in a datacentre. Reseller hosting can also be used if you have multiple domains and want to keep them all under one hosting account.

VPS – Virtual private servers are essentially dedicated server containers partitioned to allow the user to manage their own website with the added option of being able to choose an operating system image and SSH (Secure Socket Shell) into the servers to fully manage. Server management would also be required including firewall management and server hardening.

Dedicated server – For large websites which are CPU and memory intensive a dedicated server would be chosen. This option also gives you full access to your own server so knowledge of security threats, firewalls and server hardening would be required before taking out this option.

For most users shared hosting would only be required as its not only the most affordable but the need to learn how to manage the server is not required, this is managed by your hosting provider. The hosting provider should also offer additional software and a control panel for you to easily manage your account depending on the operating system they are using.

If the provider is using Linux servers a good recommendation would be to choose cPanel control panel, if the provider is using a Windows server then generally Plesk is the best option.

 

Summary

Find a hosting provider that is reliable and has good uptime guarantee by checking out their SLA in the terms and conditions section. Find a package that is right for you and a location that is ideally within the same country if possible for best performance. Some providers also offer a first month or first years discount, dont be afraid to ask!