Areas we cover

Electricians in West Sussex

In West Sussex we work in four towns: Crawley, Horsham, Burgess Hill and Worthing. Between them they take in Crawley’s business and industrial estates, the new housing on the edges of Horsham and Burgess Hill, and Worthing’s blocks of flats and older houses near the sea. If you run a business from a unit, the drawing and checklist further down set out what a typical installation contains and what to tell us before a visit; if you have bought a new-build home, the first of the questions at the foot of the page covers who to contact about a fault.

Request a quote 020 3883 1321

Schematic map. The red ring is London, where we cover every postcode. Red dots are the other towns we list; hollow dots are nearby places that are not on our list. Positions are approximate.

Towns

Towns we list in West Sussex

Crawley’s business district beside Gatwick, new estates around Horsham and Burgess Hill, and Worthing’s seafront flats and older houses.

The four towns come under four different councils: Crawley Borough, Horsham District, Mid Sussex District (for Burgess Hill) and Worthing Borough, which runs most of its services jointly with Adur District as Adur & Worthing Councils. For planning, building control and licensing, the council for your town is usually the one to ask, rather than West Sussex County Council.

Worthing

WorthingBN

Crawley

CrawleyRH

Horsham

HorshamRH

Mid Sussex

Burgess HillRH

Explained

What is in a small industrial unit

Industrial and trade units vary in size, but the electrical installation in a small one is usually built from the same few parts. Knowing what they are, and which of them are yours, makes it easier to describe a job, read your lease and plan for new machinery.

The supply cable, the cut-out (main fuses) and the meter. The cable and cut-out belong to the network operator and the meter to your energy supplier or its meter operator; everything after the meter is the building’s own installation. On a multi-let estate a unit may instead be fed, and sub-metered, from the landlord’s intake.
A three-phase board splits the supply into separate circuits, each with its own protective device, and single-phase circuits are spread across the three phases to keep the load balanced. A circuit chart that matches the board matters whenever one machine or area has to be switched off for work.
High-bay fittings hang well above head height, fed from cable tray along the wall. Reaching them needs suitable access equipment and clear floor space beneath, so tell us roughly how high the roof is and whether racking or machines stand underneath.
An emergency light by the final exit and a lit exit sign above it keep the way out visible if the normal lighting fails. New racking, partitions or a mezzanine can change the escape routes, so emergency lighting coverage needs reviewing, along with your fire risk assessment, whenever the layout changes.
Machines that need a 400 V three-phase supply are often connected through a red industrial socket, or a fixed isolator beside the machine, usually on their own circuit from the board. The rating plate on the machine gives the figures the circuit design starts from: voltage, phases and full-load current.

Fig. 1 — A small industrial unit in section, from the incoming supply to a three-phase machine outlet. Simplified and not to scale: layouts vary from unit to unit. (Illustration)

Local guide

Before we attend a commercial site

Business parks, warehouses and industrial estates often have their own rules for visiting contractors. Knowing them when you enquire means the job can be planned and priced around them, rather than discovered on the day. Every site is different; these are the points to tell us about.

Who controls the site: Whether you own the unit, lease it or are instructing on behalf of the occupier, and whose rules apply: the landlord’s or estate management’s as well as your own. Tell us who signs contractors in and who should receive the paperwork.
Inductions and site rules: Whether there is a site induction, how long it takes and whether it can be completed before the visit, plus any protective equipment the site insists on, sign-in arrangements, vehicle routes, parking and areas contractors must not enter.
Permits to work: If the site issues permits for electrical isolation, work at height or hot work, tell us who issues them and how much notice they need, and whether the site expects a risk assessment and method statement from contractors in advance.
Isolation planning: Which board feeds the area, whether switching it off affects other occupiers or a landlord’s supply, who can open the intake or meter room, and which machines need a controlled shutdown or a restart procedure. If the whole unit has to go off, that usually decides when the work can happen.
Access times: The hours the site is open, whether work can carry on during production or deliveries, and whether early or late access is possible on your side. We will then say, before you accept a quote, whether we can work to those times.
Records and machine details: The last inspection report, circuit charts, any drawings of the installation, and the rating plates or manuals of machines to be connected. Where records are missing, working out what feeds what may have to become part of the job.

Crawley’s business units change hands

Crawley grew as a new town after the Second World War, with Manor Royal, its main business district, on the north side towards Gatwick. Units there and on the town’s smaller estates are let, re-let and refitted over the years, and occupiers often alter the installation for their own layout and machines, so the circuit chart at the board may no longer match the circuits. An inspection between occupiers, recorded in an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR), shows the incoming business what it is taking on before any fit-out or new machinery is planned.
New estates in Horsham and Burgess Hill

Both towns have large new neighbourhoods on their edges, with more being built. The electrical work in a new home should come with an Electrical Installation Certificate, including the test results for every circuit. If it is not in your handover pack, ask the developer for a copy and keep it with the property’s other documents. Adding outside sockets, extra lighting or a new circuit later still starts with a check that the existing installation, including its earthing, is adequate for the new work.
Blocks of flats in Worthing

Central Worthing has a lot of flats: some in purpose-built blocks, many of them along the seafront, and others in older houses that have been divided up. In a purpose-built block the meters may be grouped in a meter room, with a cable from each one to its flat, or fitted in each flat and fed by cables that run up and along the building, known as rising and lateral mains. Those mains may belong to the network operator or to the building’s owner, and it is not always recorded which. If several flats lose power at once, call 105; before any work on cables in the shared parts, ask the freeholder or managing agent who is responsible for them.

Contacts

Who to contact for what

Not every problem is one for an electrician. Start with the right people.

Who to contact for common problems in West Sussex
If you need	Contact
Power cut, or a damaged supply cable or main fuse	Call 105 Your network operator
You smell gas	0800 111 999 National Gas Emergency Service
Fire, smoke or someone injured	Call 999 Emergency services
A fault with the meter itself	Your energy supplier (its name is on your bill)
A fault in a new-build home while the developer is still responsible for defects	The developer that built the home
Communal lighting or other shared parts of a block or estate, or a supply your landlord provides from its own intake	Your landlord, freeholder or managing agent
Faults, inspections or new work on your own installation	Contact us DualCurrent

Often asked for in West Sussex

All our services

Questions from West Sussex

My new-build home has an electrical fault: who do I contact first?: Fire, smoke or an injury comes first: call 999. Otherwise, while the developer is still responsible for putting defects right, report the fault to them first, in writing, with photos and the dates it happened; if you rent the home, tell your landlord instead. With many new-home warranties that period is the first two years, but your warranty documents give the exact terms and what to do if a defect is not put right. If a circuit trips and nothing looks or smells damaged, one reset is enough to try; should it trip a second time, leave it off and add that to your report. Check with the developer before anyone else alters the installation, as outside work can complicate a defect claim. Anything sparking, scorched or smelling of burning cannot wait for a defects process: keep away from it, and if the developer cannot deal with it promptly, call an electrician to make it safe and keep a record of what was done.
Do you cover Chichester or Bognor Regis?: Neither town is on our list, so ask us first rather than assume either way. Both are further west, in Chichester District and Arun District, and the nearest of our four towns to them is Worthing.
Can you work at a site with security checks, such as one near Gatwick?: That depends on what the site asks of contractors. Sites with security controls set their own requirements, such as passes, escorts, vehicle checks, background checks or inductions, and some take time to arrange. Tell us at the enquiry stage what your site requires and who arranges it; we can then say whether we can meet it, and the lead time can be allowed for in the date of the work.
Our unit needs power for a three-phase machine. Where do we start?: With two pieces of information: what the machine needs and what the unit has. The machine’s rating plate or installation manual gives its voltage, number of phases and full-load current or power. The last inspection report, the circuit charts or your landlord may show whether the unit has a three-phase supply and the rating of its main fuses; how much of that capacity is already in use has to be checked on site. If there is enough, the work is usually a new circuit from the distribution board to an outlet or isolator by the machine. If not, a larger or three-phase supply has to be applied for from the network operator, with your landlord’s agreement if you lease the unit. The network operator sets the cost and timescale, so raise it early.

Next step

Tell us about the job

Include the postcode and a short description. We will contact you to talk it through and tell you whether and when we can help. Nothing is booked until you have a written quote and have accepted it.

Call or email us for a free quote

Tell us the postcode and a little about the job. We will contact you to discuss it, and you get a written quote before any work starts. Quotes are free. Some survey or diagnostic visits may be charged: ask when you book.

Call 020 3883 1321 Email us

Our email address: support@dualcurrent.co.uk

Helpful to include

The postcode of the property
What the job is, or what is going wrong
Photos, if you have them, taken without removing any covers