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If your lights or power go off, it means your trip switches are working properly. You can find out what caused the problem and sort it out quite easily.

General Advice

Modern electric circuits are fitted with circuit breakers called trip switches. If a fault develops, a switch is tripped and the circuit is broken

All of the trip switches are located in the consumer unit. Some consumer units have buttons rather than switches. The consumer unit may be next to the electricity meter or near your front or back door, unless it is in an outside cupboard.

A trip switch or button usually operates because:

	there are too many fittings or appliances on a circuit and it has been overloaded
	an appliance is faulty or been misused
	a lead to an appliance, such as a TV or hair drier, is loose or badly connected
	water has leaked into a circuit or spilt onto a plug
	a light bulb has blown
	an immersion heater is faulty

If an appliance is faulty, leave it unplugged and get your own electrician or service engineer to check it. Make sure your hands are dry when you touch electrical fittings and never touch the electricity company's fuse and seals.

This advice only applies to modern consumer units. If you have an older 'fuse board' type with rewirable cartridges, do not touch it.

What To Do

Open the cover on the consumer unit to expose the trip switches/buttons.
Check which switches/buttons have tripped to the OFF position and which rooms (circuit) have been affected.
Put these switches/buttons back to the ON position.
If the trip goes again.
It is probably being caused by a faulty appliance. You need to identify which circuit is being affected and which appliance is causing the problem.
How to identify the problem appliance.
Unplug all appliances on that problem circuit and switch off the immersion heater.
Switch the 'tripped' switch to the ON position - if it is a button press it in.
Plug in the appliances one at a time until the trip goes again. Do not use adaptors when testing appliances.