Home Electricity Maintenance for Safety

Give your home the occasional electricity checkup with these safety tips!

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If you are a new homeowner or even an experienced one, learning the importance of electricity safety is important to ensure you have a safe home you and your family can enjoy. As the saying goes “better safe that sorry”, this goes very well for electrical safety. You need to give your home a checkup to ensure that everything is working smoothly. From your wiring, to circuit breakers, outlets, and plugs, it is very important that everything is working safely and in good condition. You also want to keep in mind that electricity is no game to play with. You need to know that electricity is powerful and we need to have a deep respect for it by learning, having the right tools, or simply calling a professional to handle it if we do not have the knowledge. Here is a list of some things you should watch out for to make sure your home is wired safely:

Burnt Fuses and Tripping Breakers?

If your fuses burn on a regular basis and your breakers are tripping frequently, it’s time you call a professional to take a look at your home. There may be a short circuit or another underlying electrical issue that could be causing this, and also putting you and your family in potential harm. Make sure you get an electrical inspection by a real electrician that knows what they are doing.

Be Sure Circuits are Grounded

You would be surprised at home many older homes do not have grounded circuits. This all comes from homeowners long ago doing electrical work themselves or hiring their buddy to do the work. You need to make sure that all of your circuits are properly grounded and that the wiring is connected to a ground wire in your home. If you are unsure of how to do this, consider calling a professional. One of the best electricians in Los Angeles once told me it’s better to pay more and have peace of mind than to cheap out and risk harming yourself or a family member. We tend to agree!

Protect Outlets from Children

If you are a young family with children or if you have grandchildren coming over, it’s important to protect outlets but putting outlet protectors or replacing them with tamper-resistant outlets. By doing so, you will instantly make your home a lot safer for yourself and also your little ones.

Keep Cords Away from Heat Sources

Make sure that all of your plugs, electrical cords, and extension cords are kept far away from heat sources such as a burning fire, radiator, or space heater. You do not want a heat source heating any electrical cords and possibly sparking a fire. You also want to avoid placing cords under furniture, rugs, or blankets because this could potentially be a fire hazard if there is a spark from the electricity source.

Keep Eye on Suspicious Activity

Any suspicious activity with your electricity is a good reason to get it checked out. Dimming lights, flickering lights, sizzling sounds or a burning smell is a good enough reason to call in a professional to check out your home’s wiring. These problems will never go away on their own, they can only get worse. If you do not have the knowledge to check your home’s wiring on your own, call a pro to handle the job!

Renovating Your Home

If you are starting home renovations, now is the perfect time to take a look at your home’s electricity and possibly update some things that need updating. For example, tamper resistant outlets are now required by code in all new homes, so it would be well worth replacing your outlets with these ones. Check out the new electrical codex of your county and update your home’s wiring to the latest safety standards.