If you have an all electric home or flat in places like Dagenham, Rainham or the surrounding areas, there is a good chance your heating and hot water come from an electric boiler rather than gas.
Most of the calls we get sound very familiar:
The good news is that electric boilers are fairly simple beasts compared with modern gas boilers. The bad news is that when something does go wrong, it can take proper electrical testing to find the real fault.
In this article I will walk you through:
You are most likely to see electric boilers in:
Energy Saving Trust point out that electricity is more efficient at the point of use, but at the moment it is roughly four times more expensive per unit than gas. That means electric heating can be more expensive to run, although it can still make sense in smaller or very well insulated homes where installing gas or wet systems would be costly.
So if you already have an electric boiler, it is worth keeping it running as efficiently and reliably as possible, rather than limping on with faults that waste energy and cause constant nuisance trips.
This is probably the most common complaint.
Several technical guides and fault finding articles list the usual suspects:
RCDs are there to protect people from electric shock and to reduce fire risk. Under the current BS 7671 wiring regulations, most circuits in homes, including those supplying heating, now require 30 mA RCD protection.
So if the boiler keeps tripping the RCD, that is the system shouting that something is wrong. Repeatedly resetting it without investigating the cause is not a plan.
If the display is dead and there are no lights on the boiler, it can be:
Online boiler troubleshooting guides all start by checking the supply and fuses, then move on to internal faults. Before taking the cover off, they all add the same warning: isolate the power properly or leave it to a qualified person.
Here we are usually looking at one or more failed elements or a control issue.
Electric boiler help guides list issues such as:
You can often hear the unit working and feel some heat in the pipes, but radiators never really get going, or hot water is only warm.
Buzzing, sizzling or a hot plastic smell are never a good sign.
Common causes include:
Fault finding guides are very blunt here: switch off the appliance at the isolator and do not turn it back on until it has been inspected.
Before calling anyone out, there are a few low risk checks you can do.
What you should not do is start opening the boiler casing or disconnecting cables unless you are trained and know how to test and isolate properly. There is live mains voltage inside, and the combination of water and electricity makes for serious risks if you are guessing.
If you are a landlord with tenants in Dagenham, Rainham or anywhere else in England, the law is clear.
Government guidance and housing law explain that:
So a tripping RCD, no hot water or no heating from an electric boiler is not something that can sit for weeks while tenants shiver. You are expected to arrange repairs in a reasonable timeframe and to use competent people to do the work.
This is also where regular EICR testing and general electrical maintenance can help. If we pick up issues in advance, you are less likely to face emergency breakdowns in the middle of winter.
RCDs trip when they detect leakage to earth above a small threshold, typically 30 mA in domestic settings.
With electric boilers there are a few extra risk factors:
RCD protection is a key safety measure in modern wiring. BS 7671 and related guidance now expect almost all domestic circuits, including those feeding fixed appliances in many cases, to have RCD protection.
If your electric boiler repeatedly causes an RCD to trip, that is a strong sign that something is wrong either inside the boiler, in associated controls, or in the supply circuit. Resetting again and again without fault finding is not safe.
When we get called to an electric boiler fault in or around Dagenham and Rainham, we treat it like any other serious electrical issue.
We start by asking:
Then we visually inspect:
Before blaming the boiler, we test the incoming circuit:
This uses the same test instruments and approach we use for EICR work, which is one reason we often combine boiler fault finding with a wider electrical health check if the property has other issues.
With the supply safely isolated and covers removed, we can:
Fault finding guides list failed elements, water ingress and degraded wiring as the most common causes of RCD tripping and no heat in electric boilers, and that matches what we see in real homes.
At this stage we can usually tell you clearly whether it is:
If it is repairable, we:
If the boiler really is at the end of its life, we will say so. There is no point spending good money on parts for a unit that is likely to fail again soon.
Where needed, we can also coordinate with heating engineers if there are plumbing or cylinder issues that sit outside the electrical side.
A faulty electric boiler is sometimes the visible tip of a wider electrical iceberg.
In older flats and houses around Dagenham, Rainham and nearby areas, it is not unusual to find:
Repairing the boiler without addressing those issues is a short term fix.
That is why we often recommend pairing boiler work with:
If you are also considering changing how you control heating, smart stats and timers come into play too, which ties into our home automation work.
We have separate articles that go deeper into electric radiators, underfloor heating wiring and boiler controls, and your web team can cross link those posts from this one so readers can explore all the options.
You do not have combustion, flues or gas leaks to worry about, which removes some risks. But you still have high power electrical elements and water in the same box. Electric heating advice from organisations like Energy Saving Trust stresses that all heating systems should be installed and maintained correctly and that electricity is still dangerous if wiring or protection is not up to standard.
No. RCD trips on a boiler are often caused by faulty elements, water ingress or degraded wiring. Expert fault finding articles explicitly warn that you should not keep resetting without investigation because there is a risk of electric shock or fire.
It needs checking by a competent electrician.
Housing guidance says landlords must fix most heating and hot water faults within a reasonable time and that tenants are entitled to a safe, habitable home. Shelter’s legal pages and government advice both confirm that broken boilers and unsafe electrics are the landlord’s responsibility to repair.
Leaving tenants without proper heat or hot water can lead to enforcement action.
Per unit of energy, yes. Current advice notes that electricity is around four times more expensive per kWh than gas on typical tariffs, although electric systems are highly efficient at the point of use.
In small, well insulated properties they can still be practical, especially if combined with good controls and, where possible, off peak tariffs or solar.
If the problem is clearly electrical - tripping RCDs, dead displays, blown fuses - an electrician is usually the first call. If there are leaks, pressure issues or cylinder problems, a heating engineer gets involved too. In practice, for many faults we handle the electrical side and coordinate with heating specialists where plumbing work is needed.
If your electric boiler in Dagenham, Rainham or nearby keeps tripping, cutting out or simply refuses to heat anything, you do not need to live with it or keep guessing.
Volt East can:
A proper diagnosis now is almost always cheaper and safer than nursing a failing boiler through another winter.
Contact us today to receive your free quotation with no strings attached.
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