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    Top Electrician’s 7 Simple Home Checks to Do Before Your Summer Holiday
    Top Electrician’s 7 Simple Home Checks to Do Before Your Summer Holiday
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    Top Electrician’s 7 Simple Home Checks to Do Before Your Summer Holiday

    22 June 2026

    With summer getaways in full swing, Buckley Electrical shares a quick pre-holiday checklist to keep Irish homes safe; 72,000 homes have no working smoke alarm

    As Irish families head off for the summer holidays in search of fine weather, Cork-based electrician Buckley Electrical is encouraging homeowners to spend 10 minutes safety-checking the house before they lock up. Sure, passports and pet care tend to get sorted, but the electrics rarely make the list.
    It’s a timely nudge, too. Official figures from the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management list electrical wiring and equipment among the recognised causes of home fires in Ireland, and the fire services’ number one piece of advice is the easiest one to act on before you travel: fit a working smoke alarm and test it regularly.

    Most of the electrical issues we see are completely preventable,” says Kieran Buckley, Founder of Buckley Electrical. “A quick walk around the house before you go, unplugging what you don’t need, checking your leads and testing the smoke alarm takes minutes, costs nothing and means you can actually relax once you’re away.”

    The 7-Point Holiday Checklist

    Drawing on years of experience and guidance from bodies including Safe Electric and ESB Networks, Buckley Electrical suggests running through these before locking the door:
    • Test your smoke alarms: The one not to skip, so check the batteries and test every alarm before you travel.
    • Unplug unused appliances: Toasters, kettles and the like can be unplugged if you don’t need them. Even when switched off, some keep drawing power.
    • Don’t leave devices charging: E-bikes, power banks and other rechargeables are best charged before you head off, not left plugged in while you’re away.
    • Check extension leads and adaptors: Overloaded leads and multi-plug adaptors can overheat, so clear away any plugs you don’t need.
    • Fully unwind extension reels: A coiled reel can build up heat under load, so if one’s in use, unwind it fully.
    • Give plugs and cables a once-over: Keep an eye out for loose connections, scorch marks or frayed cables and replace anything damaged.
    • Switch off non-essentials: TVs, desktop computers and similar devices can be switched off and unplugged for a little less risk and a little less standby energy, too.

    A Few Minutes Well Spent

    Modern wiring is generally very safe, but faults can still come from damaged equipment, ageing components or overloaded circuits, and an empty house means a problem can go unnoticed.

    Many homeowners assume electrical problems only happen in older properties, but they can crop up in any home,” Kieran adds. “A quick check before a holiday is one of the easiest wins there is.”

    The Older-Home Factor

    There’s also a longer-term point worth flagging, especially in a country with a sizeable stock of older homes. A good portion of Irish housing was built decades ago, well before today’s electrical standards and long before modern households were running EV chargers, heat pumps and a houseful of devices. While house rewiring is a possible solution, industry safety guidance is consistent that wiring and fuseboards installed 30 or 40 years ago, if never upgraded, can struggle with modern demand and may no longer meet current safety standards. 
    The official data hints at where attention is needed. The CSO’s Census 2022 found that nearly 72,000 Irish households, around 4% of occupied homes, had no working smoke alarm at all, and that detached houses were more than twice as likely as apartments to be without one.

    If your home is 30 or 40 years old and the wiring has never been looked at, it’s worth having it checked. It’s not about alarming people, it’s that an older system was never designed for the loads we put through it today.”

    How the Data Was Gathered

    Buckley Electrical assessed several sources for this press release, including the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage for fire safety guidance and causes of home fires (source), noting the Department's figures don’t capture all causes as not all counties record a specific cause of fire. They also assessed the CSO Census 2022 (Profile 2, Housing in Ireland) for smoke alarm and housing data, and home electrical safety guidance from Safe Electric, Fire Ireland and ESB Networks.

    About Buckley Electrical

    Buckley Electrical is a Cork-based electrical contractor specialising in domestic, commercial and renewable energy solutions.