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No. 08
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No. 0812 lessons
How the electricity in your home works — circuits, earthing, the fuse board and the wiring behind plugs, sockets and lights — so you can choose the right parts, read the warning signs and brief an electrician well. It explains the work; it doesn’t train you to do it.
Recommended orderLessons build on earlier ideas. Follow the numbers as you read.
See what voltage and current really are, why a light switched off can still leave live wires, and why one live wire is enough to give you a shock.
10 steps
Turn watts into amps, see why the heat in a wire grows with the square of the current, and know what a lead, a reel and a fuse can take.
9 stepsBuilds on What Is Electricity, Really?
Tell power from energy, see what your meter and in-home display actually count, and read the right register safely.
8 stepsBuilds on Watts, Amps and Why Wires Melt
Know what line, neutral and earth each do, why neutral can still hurt you, and how the earth wire turns a dangerous fault into a trip.
8 stepsBuilds on What Is Electricity, Really?
Read your consumer unit from the front: what the main switch, MCBs and RCDs each watch for, and what a trip is telling you.
9 stepsBuilds on The Three Wires Explained, Watts, Amps and Why Wires Melt
Why switching off isn’t the same as safe, and the safeguards an electrician uses before anyone touches wiring.
12 stepsBuilds on Demystifying the Fuse Board, The Three Wires Explained
See how a UK plug is built to fail safely: marked terminals, a grip on the sheath, a longer earth and a fuse that protects the flex.
9 stepsBuilds on The Golden Rule: Safe Isolation, The Three Wires Explained
See how socket circuits are arranged, why a broken ring or a missing earth can hide behind sockets that work, and when the job stops.
9 stepsBuilds on The Golden Rule: Safe Isolation, The Three Wires Explained
See how a loop-in ceiling rose and its switch are wired, why a blue core can be live, and what a smart switch needs.
11 stepsBuilds on The Golden Rule: Safe Isolation, The Three Wires Explained
Choose a replacement lamp by cap, voltage and lumens, and understand why LEDs and old dimmers often don’t get on.
10 stepsBuilds on Watts, Amps and Why Wires Melt, kW, kWh and Your Meter
Work out what a tripped MCB, a tripped RCD or a dead street is telling you, what to note and who to call.
10 stepsBuilds on Demystifying the Fuse Board, The Golden Rule: Safe Isolation
Put the course together on a hot socket nothing trips: the mechanism, what to do, renters’ and legal limits, and what to do in a shock or a fire.
14 stepsBuilds on Watts, Amps and Why Wires Melt, Demystifying the Fuse Board, Trips and Power Cuts: Reading the Clues