Power Safety Audit

Not only is your home your biggest asset, but also the place where you and your family are at rest. Your electrical system gradually deteriorate with use, misuse, age and increased demand. To ensure the electrical safety of your home, your electrical inspection should be up to date, defects corrected and service upgraded to meet present and predictable demands.

Take this quick evaluation of your home to determine just how safe your home's electrical may be.

1. Is your home over 30 years old?

2. Has your home had a major addition or renovation or major new appliance added such as a refrigerator, freezer, air conditioner or electric furnace in the last 10 years?

3. Are you the new owner of a previously owned home?

4. Do your lights flicker or dim momentarily?

5. Do your circuit breakers trip or fuses blow often?
 

6. Are your outlet and light switch face plates hot to the touch or discolored?

7. Do you hear cracking, sizzling or buzzing from your outlets?

8. Do you have extension cords and multiple power strips permanently in use around the house?

If you answered "yes" to any of the above, it is highly recommended that you perform a Safety Power Audit of your home.

Three Reasons Why You Smell That Burning Coming From Your Outlet

Faulty Wirng

There are three wires connected to the back of each electrical outlet: a negative wire, a positive wire and a ground wire. Typically colored black, white and green. The ground wire is designed to
push off an excessive flow of electricity away from the outlet to avoid any damage. An improperly installed ground wire may cause the outlet to smoke or burn. Also, arcing might occur. This is when the positive and negative wires are not properly sheathed in plastic and they come close enough to interact with one another. Electricity will jump from the negative wire to the positive in what is known as a short circuit and will burn anything within the surrounding outlet, causing smoke.


Overloading
  
If there's more than one appliance plugged into one receptacle with oversized protection, this will cause the receptacle to overheat and cause a breakdown in the outlet.

Debris or Small Particles From Corroded Plug


In older homes we wish evevrything will last forever, but they don't. Some of the common problems we would have is outdated electrical systems, which we should upgrade. However, this can be expensive without the proper planning. But, at the very least, you should replace your receptacles. Outdated receptacles tend to become brittle and crack, causing fragmented debris or dust and dirt to be cooked by the electrical. At this point this should be taken care immediatiately.

Electrical Safety Myths

1. If fuse KEEPS blowing go get a bigger one. No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!This will get your fire department to your house quicker than a cat stuck in the tree in Beverley Hills. Note: if this fuse keeps blowing, this means you have entirely to much on this circuit. NUMBER ONE REASON- SPACE HEATERS.

2. When a live wire falls, it makes sparks. This is NOT ALWAYS true. A power line sparks if it falls to the ground and does not make firm contact with the ground or other material. When a wire falls to the ground and makes firm contact, it will often make no noise or sparks, and will give the impression of being de-energized.

3. The tires on my vehicle insulates me from live down power lines. NOPE!!!LOL. The tires also are conductors. Now, you are safe in your car, however, the outside of your metal car is Liver than Saturday Night.

4. Wood is an insulator. This is far from the truth. Its most certainly a conductor, maybe not a good one, but nonetheless. The molecules in the wood are far apart causing electricity hard to flow. But two things changes the formular 1) dampness and 2) higher voltage.