Electrical Advice Online- Your Internet Electrician
What Every Home Owner Should Know About Their Home
Electrical Wiring System.
Hello again from Electrical-Advice-Online, Greg Whitehead,
your internet electrician.
Over the years in the electrical construction and
service business, I am frequently faced with many of the same similar
electrical issues that I am called out to repair.
Many times, these issues can
actually escalate to more serious problems, whether it’s damage tosomething
that is connected to the electrical circuit, or in some cases, an imminent risk
of fire due to the conditions existing that, with a little preventative
maintenance, would be totally eliminated.
Because of this reason, I decided to
offer some
information to help educate people that could save
their life and/or
property...
The MOST important thing to take note of here, is that even
if you don’t want to do any electrical work yourself, you can at least be aware
of what to look for or what to be aware of keeping an eye out for. Many times,
by the time we are called out to repair an electrical problem, the issue is
already to the danger point. I f the home owner had an idea what to be aware
of, they can call us out sooner, helping to lessen the risk.
So, with all that said, let’s get on with it. What should
you be keeping an eye out for to avoid getting to the point of a dangerous
electrical issue? (Make sure you are thinking of all safety issues before you
take on any type of work listed herein. Wear your safety glasses, make sure you
disconnect the power to anything you are working on, not only to avoid
electrocution, but also to prevent something from turning on while you are
working on it.) Please see our legal
disclaimer .
Just a quick side note here. If you feel like you are
getting valuable information here and you know of others that can benefit from
this information, I have installed an option here- that will allow you to
easily tell a few of your friends about our site just by entering their name
and email address. If you help us out this way by telling at least (3) friends,
I have a special gift for you that you will receive the details for in an email
that you will receive after telling at least (3) friends. Thanks.
What kind of information are we going to cover here?
- What to look for in
your wall plugs (receptacles) that indicate an imminent problem or hazard.
The first, most obvious
indication is how tightly your receptacle(s) grip the plug when you plug
something into it. If the plug easily falls out, or wobbles around causing the
connection to be lost, (vacuum turns off and on when plug is wriggled), then
you should have that receptacle replaced. The loose connection is causing high
resistance, which will build up heat, causing damage to the branch circuit
conductors and even you plug and can quickly turn into a fire hazard. As time
goes by, the problem worsens.
Another
thing to look for is, do you experience intermittent “power outages” in
portions of your home? This can indicate a loose connection at the terminations
on the back side of the receptacles. A major cause of this is when the “stab-
in” terminals are used rather than the screw terminals on the receptacle.
Although, the screw terminals can become loose and cause the same scenario.
Please see our “How to Replace a Receptacle” e book.
- What you should pay
attention to when changing your light bulbs
I’m sure that you’ve heard about
the CFL’s. Compact Fluorescent Lamps. How they can save you tons of money in
electricity and lamp changes, right? Well, guess what. It’s not true! At least
not for most home use applications. As with anything, the statement needs to be
qualified. Now, if you have an area that you use often and for long periods of
time, then CFL’s may work fine in that location, provided you LEAVE THEM ON for
the whole time. Compact Fluorescent lamps cannot handle the frequent on and off
condition. They will last a long time, they will save energy, they will put off
much less heat than an incandescent light bulb, but only if they are in a spot
that is turned on, and left on for long periods of time. Every time they are
switched on and off, their life expectancy goes way down. If you are planning
to use CFL’s in your home, you most likely will not get any where near the “7
year” life expectancy, and if you only get 3 years out of it, then you won’t
realize the payback on it to justify the cost of the CFL. Taking this into
consideration, CFLs are not as “green” as we have led to believe!
Just a note here that I wanted to mention. I have my office
in a bedroom in the basement of my home. The ceiling is only about 7’ high, so
I installed recessed cans through out the basement. In my office, I have (6)
recessed fixtures in a 10 x 10 room. To get the light level that I like, I would
normally install a 75 watt flood bulb in each fixture. That is the equivalent
of having a 450 watt heater turned on. That’s fine in the winter time here in
Colorado, but in the
summer, it’s very uncomfortable. For this reason, I am using the compact fluorescent
lamps (13 watts each times 6 equals 78 watts of heat output). To make my CFL’s
last longer, I will leave the lights on even if I plan to gone for a couple of
hours. I am still saving energy, and my lamps last longer than if I were to
shut them off every time I left the room, like I do everywhere else. So much
for teaching my kids to always shut off the lights, now I have to teach them to
“think” first.
So keep these things in mind before you go and throw a
compact fluorescent lamp in every fixture in your home. They are not well
suited for being turned on and off a bunch. They will do much better by being
left on, which doesn’t make sense in some rooms.
p.s. The CFLs are also very susceptible
to voltage spikes (surges). We recommend the you install a Whole House Surge Protector to maximize the life of the CFLs, standard lamps and your appliances.
