Most would agree that electricity is an indispensable service for our homes. It is delivered to us from the city vehicle power lines that connect with our homes. There’s an electrical box, the typically sits on the outside of the home and then feeds electricity into a circuit box located inside the home. From the circuit box electricity is delivered t outlets, light fixtures and switches located throughout the home. This system of electricity has been in operation for more than a hundred years and continues to work extremely well.
There been advances and technology for delivering electricity within the home but they’ve only been minimal. Fuses have been replaced by circuits, and the quality of electrical wiring has increased and now has less resistance than previous generations wiring. Other than this, there’s been few if any changes in the home’s electrical system.
What also hasn’t changed is the danger associated with electricity. Even medium voltage electricity, which is the type that flows through your home, can cause injury or death. For this reason, electricity must be worked with extremely cautiously when there is a problem in fact it is so dangerous that electrical contractors like Sandy Petrocelli instruct to call a professional electrician or even the fire department in the event of an electrical problem in their home.
Because they are trained and licensed professionals, electricians in charge at the upper end of professional fees. In places like New York City, NY electricians are paid top dollar to install and sometimes repair electrical systems. Their approach when dealing with electricity is always safety first, and safety second.
For this reason they advise homeowners to be very cautious when there’s an electrical problem at their home. Here are a few tips they offer to help homeowners understand if they have an electrical problem.
Inspect your home’s electrical system
You should do an inspection of your home’s electrical system every 6 months. This includes:
The Electric Panel: this is the box that is located in your house where all of the circuits to turn on and off electricity that flows through the house is contained. You should know which Breakers correspond to which areas of the house and they should be clearly marked and easy to distinguish. Also, the panel should not be warm nor should there be any electrical smells or smoke. If there’s a problem with any electrical issue in your house you should immediately come to this box and turn off the circuit breaker in the area of the house where there’s an electrical problem.
Electrical Outlets: Electrical outlets in where you plug in an electric appliances see. You should examine and make sure that they are not hot to the touch and will hold the plug from an electric appliance firmly. A hot outlet means an electrical load on this circuit is too high, wiring is melting, wiring isn’t up to code or is loose. Any of these issues is dangerous and requires immediate service by an electrician. Although if you have a good knowledge with electrical wires, you may fix it yourself using some basic tools like a wire stripper, voltage detector, and hydraulic crimping tool for electrical cables. Otherwise, make sure to ask help from a professional.
Finally, make sure that you have a fire extinguisher that can put out electrical fires easily accessible. Electrical fires can go quickly and quick access to a fire extinguisher can save lives and you’re home.