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A lot of people get confused over IP ratings, even those that have been in the industry for YEARS but they are so important. The last thing you want is to try to light up your pond and accidentally end up making a quick and easy way to boil thousands of pounds worth of koi carp! (especially when you can’t do the chips at the same time). So, breaking IP Waterproof ratings down bit by bit, IP simply explains what the regulation is (boring I know), ingress protection. Right, now the easy bit is done with, the next part is understanding the two digits. The first digit indicates what size solid object you can prod into the product. In the regulations it's done from 0-6 with an inclusion of an “X”, The X mark simply means that the person that made the product doesn’t believe this part of the regulation is relative and hasn’t tested it (move it along guys nothing to see here). 0-6 have pretty specific guidelines with 0,1,3 rarely being seen so to not bore everyone we will move on to the commonly used bad boys 2 - protects against solid objects no greater than 12.5mm 4 - protects against solid objects no greater than 1.0mm 5 – protects from dust 6 – yeah, no dust is getting in this bad boy, fully dust-tight. So pretty simple. Now on to the tricky part, the second digit tells you how much water can get into the product which in the world of electrical goods is pretty significant. It’s a similar format to the first digit in that it has a rating that goes from 0-8 with an “X” for not tested but to really throw a spanner in the works there’s a 9K (no this isn’t a crazy high-resolution TV were talking about). Again there’s a few that don’t really get used but the full range is still important in this part. 0 – not protected, this product might as well be a goldfish bowl 1 – protects against water coming vertically at it but still not really intended for water 2 – a bit of tilt (15 degrees) it won’t take on water 3 – can take a hit of water with a big tilt (60 degrees) 4 – it can take water from all sides but not a lot! 5 – now were talking, this bad boy can take a hit from the water jets, Karcher here I come 6 – it's braced for the high seas! And no water from the Karchers getting in here 7 – now we're talking serious protection, at 7 are going down as low as a 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes. 8 – this product is sleeping with the fishes! 8 means fully submersible usually up to about 3 meters 9K – now were talking specialist high powered jets at close range So now you know what IP rating is best for you to be able to fire your jets at! (no not the aeroplanes)

Regularly we hear people ask the question, which home automation system should I use? Well, in an ever-expanding market this is a hard question to answer but here are 3 helpful tips for making sure you’re heading down the right path. 1 – Are you starting from fresh or are you swapping out your old switches and sockets? The way you install the system will define its limitations, many of the retrofit systems will require some additional rewiring but nothing too taxing (like the Octo system); whereas starting from fresh means rewiring the whole house, but rewiring does mean THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER. With the rewired systems you can switch the lights on with a single word or close the curtains with a tap of a mobile phone and never have to worry about Fred next door peeping in your living room again when you’re lying about watching your favourite episode of EastEnders. Looking at the retrofit systems such as Octo these are super quick and easy to install with amazing connectivity but you can’t attach any motors or link it to a system like Alexa. 2 - What do you want the system to control? The systems you install from fresh can encompass a lot of different functions but do have a few limitations (you will still have to get up to blend margaritas). The retrofit systems on the other hand whilst easy to install and very easy to control come with quite a lot of restriction; take the Clicksmart system from Scolmore; It can be designed to work most if not all on/off, dim or movement functions across a whopping 40 easy to install modules all from a smartphone. But to be able to get more units across more than 30 meters you’ll have to start investing in additional smart boxes and extenders which all of a sudden start to weigh on the old purse strings. 3- What’s your budget? So having read up to this point you’re probably sitting there and going, well I might as well start from fresh, I might have to pay a bit extra for installation but even the retrofit needs some wiring and starting from fresh I can do almost anything, I could even set up a home automated nerf gun to stop Fred’s damn cat from leaving its “mark” on the front lawn!!….yes you could, starting from a measly £10,000 before installation or programming (back to spraying the cat with the hose). Whereas it’s somewhat restricted counterparts such as the Click smart or Octo system can be bought and installed through an entire house from as little as a grand, they can also be programmed by most tech-savvy users. I hope these little tips help in your journey to finding the right home automation system for you, but if you’re still left with more questions than most of the general population after watching Inception, then drop an email to one of the team at 7 Core Electrical.

We’ve all done it, bought that beautiful centrepiece light fitting made of pure Japanese oak with decorative metal bits hand folded by the monks of Tibet (lighting designed by Luxicore Lighting obviously), had the fitting installed with Led lights, gone to turn it on and boom! There it is, that buzzing sound decides to appear, the same one that emanates from the front lawn whenever Fred, next doors son, decides to spark up his half-broken scooter. The question is why? Well, there are a few reasons for this, the first and most common one is that you’ve bought a dimmable lamp and the dimmer simply doesn’t work with the LED lamp you’ve bought. The easiest way to avoid this is to buy a new dimmer that has the ability to be programmed, since the discovery of the issue a few people have come up with a really positive solution but, to be honest, the best way to get the right thing is simply to get down to your local 7Core Electrical and ask for just that, a programmable LED dimmer. So now we’ve swapped over the dimmer and the buzzing continues to sound like a swarm of hornets playing mini kazoos. The next easy step is to check if there’s anything that might be causing interference like a TV, radio or that tesla tower you set up in the living room. If there might be anything in the room causing a frequency interference then simply switch it off and see if the buzzing stops, problem solved! This generally shouldn’t happen with the better-quality LEDs and might mean you need to look at investing in a slightly different setup in order to watch the housewives of Blackpool with the lights on. But yet again the buzzing hasn’t stopped and all of a sudden there’s a smell like the Australians next door have thrown another shrimp on the barbie (here’s looking at you, Dave Maynard). This is a sign of a significantly more worrying and sinister issue; this could mean that there is an electrical fault in the line and your best course of action is to turn the lights off and if you can, isolate the circuit. Once you’ve done this call a competent electrician IMMEDIATELY! It might be a 5-minute job to solve for an electrician but unchecked could lead to some serious consequences. So hopefully after reading this you’ve ditched the Tesla tower, changed the dimmer and not needed to call out the electrician but have a beautiful centrepiece lighting without the unpleasant sounds to boot. There are other reasons LED lamps make a buzzing sound and if the above doesn’t solve it there’s plenty of other forums and blogs that can arm you with the required knowledge but if that’s too much for you there’s plenty of lighting designers and consultants that would be happy to help (we live for this stuff let’s be honest).