Learn about the services in your home. From how electricity is connected, supplied and distributed, to how water enters your home, and why it's important you know where the main stop valve is located.
You'll also find information about your gas supply, central heating system, and links to related pages that give more detailed information and guidance about common issues.
Electricity is normally supplied through an underground cable, which is connected to your electricity meter.
Cables leading from the meter are connected to your consumer unit, which contains the main on/off switch and a number of miniature circuit breakers (MCBs) protecting individual circuits.
- MCBs automatically disconnect the supply of electricity if one of the circuits is overloaded or if there’s a fault. They can be reset by returning the switch to the ‘on’ position.
In addition there may be a residual current device (RCD) which provides additional shock protection.
- You can reset an RCD which has ‘tripped’ by returning the switch to the ‘on’ position.
- Check the RCD is working properly from time to time by pressing the ‘test’ button.
If an MCB or RCD trips repeatedly, this may mean there’s:
- a fault with an appliance - our electrics, broadband and TV video guide shows you how to check this
- if you've checked all the appliances and it seems to be a problem with the installation instead - please contact us to report this.
Other cables then distribute electricity around the home, normally concealed in floors and walls. Cables that aren’t protected by metal conduit (pipe) may be found in certain areas of the wall or above a ceiling or under a floor. To make sure any DIY is carried out safely, please read our making your own improvements page, electrical safety for tenants and electrical safety for shared owners and leaseholders pages.
Our electrics, broadband and TV video guide includes information on the likely positioning of cables in the home and we have a short gas, electric and water meters video guide.
For more general information (including using electric storage heaters and off-peak immersion tanks), visit our electrics, electric heating and lighting page.
Water is supplied by the water company through an underground service pipe, which is fitted with a stopvalve at the boundary to your property for the water company to use in an emergency.
As it enters your home, its flow is controlled by the main stopvalve or stopcock, which allows you to turn off the supply in an emergency or for maintenance. It’s important you know where the main stopvalve is located in your home. From your stopvalve, water enters the ‘rising main’ and is distributed around the home via a direct feed system.
Our kitchen appliances video was designed for those moving into a new home and tells you about plumbing in a washing machine or dishwasher as well as how to turn off the water in an emergency.
Our plumbing webpage includes other video guides on how to fix a blocked sink, broken toilet flush, constantly filling toilet cistern, and how to replace a shower head or hose. It also explains how to avoid frozen pipes and thaw a frozen condensate pipe (a common cause of boilers not working in extremely cold weather).
We also have a short gas, electric and water meters video guide.
If you have gas, it’s brought into your home through a service pipe that terminates at the control valve by the meter.
This is usually outside the building either on the wall or partially buried in the ground. You should have a key to open the meter cupboard so you can turn off the gas in an emergency, or read the meter. Meter keys are also cheaply and easily available from most hardware and DIY shops.
Gas is distributed to the central heating boiler and other gas appliances through pipework, which may be hidden in floors and walls.
Our managing gas heating page includes more useful information and troubleshooting tips. Our annual gas safety checks page, operating a boiler video guide and gas, electric and water meters video guide may also be helpful.
To make sure any DIY is carried out safely, please also read our making your own improvements page.
A hot water central heating system consists of a boiler and radiators, a pump and controls. Water heated by the boiler is pumped around the radiators through pipework that’s usually hidden in the floors and walls.
Adjust the settings of the programmer to turn the heating on and off when you need it. A room thermostat and/or thermostatic radiator valves are normally provided to regulate room temperatures.
For central heating systems with a hot water cylinder, the temperature of the hot water from the taps is normally set by adjusting the cylinder thermostat.
Central heating systems with a combination boiler have no hot water cylinder. Water that comes directly from the rising main is heated in the boiler and distributed to the hot taps around the home. There should be a control on the boiler to set the temperature of the hot water from the taps.
Our managing gas heating page includes more useful information and troubleshooting tips. Our annual gas safety checks page may also be useful and we have video guides on operating a boiler, bleeding a radiator and room thermostats and radiator controls.
If you don't have gas central heating, we also have a webpage about using your air source heat pump system.