Homeowners in Allen and other parts of North Texas know what time of year this is—and they keep the phone number for their top Allen electrician handy. Why? Springtime in North Texas is well-known for its potentially severe weather. Severe storms, along with extreme temperatures and lightning are just a few of the conditions responsible for rolling blackouts, power surges and power outages. Our weakened power grid and a growing population does nothing to alleviate the situation, which is why many turn to their top Allen electrician for tips on how to deal with the storm season.

Storm Season Tips

With the weather in North Texas being so unpredictable, how can you be sure that you are prepared to tackle what Mother Nature dishes out? Follow these simple tips to protect your home, your electrical system and your family from dangerous and frightening conditions.

#1 Have your electrical system checked regularly. With this storm season upon us, it is extremely important that you get in touch with your Allen electrician and have him look over your circuit breakers, wiring and outlets as part of his regular maintenance. Flaws in your electrical system, be it with breakers, wiring or any other aspect, combined with unpredictable weather, is the recipe for a very, very bad situation.

#2 Use power surge protectors on all your appliances. Did you know that, even a lightning strike that hits miles from your home can affect your appliances? Power surge protectors show up often in storm season tips everywhere, and there’s a reason why. Power surges can be deadly for your appliances and anything else hooked up directly into the outlet, particularly during lightning storms.

#3 Install a built-in surge protector on your circuit panel. This will protect everything hooked to the circuit panel from potentially damaging surges. Even when the power is restored after an outage, it often still does not come on right away; instead, it flickers, which shoots and cuts off electricity randomly to your appliances, ultimately causing damage.

#4 Always keep a weather radio handy. Weather alert radios are an invaluable addition to your home’s severe weather kit. In case of an emergency, an outage, lightning strike or blackout, you will have access to weather updates, evacuation information (if necessary), and instructions on how to keep your family and home safe in the event of bad weather.

#5 Invest in an indoor generator. Indoor generators are a great way to take a little pressure off of the overloaded power grid during a power surge or blackout. When there’s a blackout, the indoor generator kicks in, keeping a steady flow of electricity going to your home and keeping your appliances from getting damaged. Some generators are solar-powered, which can save you energy, time and money.

ElectricMan: Helping You Prepare

Severe stormy weather doesn’t have to be scary, inconvenient, dangerous or costly. Following these simple storm season tips can ensure that you and your family are spared the expenses and headaches that come with unpredictable weather in North Texas. For 27 years, ElectricMan has dealt with all sorts of electrical issues resulting from severe weather. Call us today at 972-301-2630 to learn more about how we can help you prepare for a stormy season. For more helpful tips on keeping your home’s electrical system running well, keep checking in with us at blog.electricmaninc.com or check out our website at www.electricmaninc.com today!

As professional electricians, we always stress that homeowners must never attempt electrical repairs on their own without proper training, licensing, and equipment. This is principally to protect people from high voltage shocks and electrical fires. But it is also important that a house’s electrical system remain up to code.

But just what is this nebulous “code”? It isn’t so nebulous as you might think: it’s called the National Electric Code or the NEC. It helps keep you and your home safe through the standardization of electrical practices.

The National Electric Code

Essentially, the NEC is a collection of what the top experts in fire prevention in the country consider the best standards for safety in electrical wiring, and this set of standards is collected and made available to local governments to use as part of local laws at their discretion. The code is updated every three years, and the current NEC is available to the public in a bound book containing over a thousand pages. The code is also available online through the NFPA’s website.

It depends on your jurisdiction. Your city, state, or municipality will have its own version of the code and its own method of enforcement. Nobody expects you to go read the entire NEC online: local electricians will know how the code is used in their jurisdictions. This knowledge is one of the qualities that separates professional electricians from amateurs. While performing repairs and installations, trained and licensed electricians will make certain that the work done keeps a building within the restrictions of the local version of the NEC.

When you think of caring for your home, you don’t often think about the electrical system unless something is going wrong. With an electrical system, when things go wrong, they often go very wrong. You don’t want to lose your home to an electrical fire or even a life due to not having the knowledge you need to safely complete an electrical project or upgrade. That’s why you need your local electrician in Gladewater for any electrical projects you have around the house. But we truly cannot stress it enough that electrical work is not a do-it-yourself project, and to prove our point (and to keep you safe), keep reading in order to to learn the top five reasons that residential electrical work is not a do-it-yourself project.

While changing out things like light switches may seem like simple tasks around the house, and arguably they are, you’re still exposing yourself to bare wires that carry an electrical current. The average American home runs on 120 volts AC. While a quick zap from accidentally touching a bare wire will probably not be enough to kill you, you could easily be gravely injured. Low amperages can easily kill someone and amps vary widely. Additionally, if you accidentally hold onto a wire with a normal voltage, for any number of reasons, this could also kill you. The number one most important thing when dealing with electricity is safety. A professional electrician knows many of the proper techniques and processes in order to perform a variety of electrical services safely.

Like any other home project, there are some electrical projects that you can easily completed with a screwdriver or hammer, and there are others that require very specialized tools in order to complete the job properly. In fact, buying the tools to do the job may cost you substantially more than hiring a local electrician in order to complete it. Tools like a multimeter, insulated hand tools, wire striping or crimping tools, and fish poles or tapes are all essential tools for most electrical services. The costs can easily add up, especially if you just have a small project or two that you need completed.

Along with saving yourself the money associated with buying specialized tools you may only attempt to use once or twice, there are several other factors that can save you both time and money. You could spend hours trying to solve and repair a problem that would take a trained electrician a fraction of the time. Also, you may incorrectly estimate the amount of materials you need to complete the project, which can cause additional incurred costs. Lastly, you can’t get the same prices on materials that contractors can, which just increases your overall costs.

You may be great at following a manual, step-by-step guide, or YouTube video for a standard electrical repair or upgrade, but in older homes, standard is rarely the case. In fact, many older homes have wiring layouts that are anything but standard. Trying to find where wiring runs for an outlet that connects to a lightswitch may not be as easy as it sounds. This creative wiring will be tackled the quickest by a professional with the right level of experience, not by yourself when you don’t know what to expect.

Electrical work also involves keeping your home up to code for safety and for resale value. Most everyday individuals don’t have a clue what building codes are and what is required in order to keep home wiring adherent to code. That’s where your local, licensed electrician comes in. They are educated in how to keep your home up to code and the most affordable, safe ways in which to do so. If you own an older home, you may run into a situation where you need to upgrade the wiring to keep your home up to code. This can easily get expensive and complicated, but is well worth the hassle in order to protect your home, family, and investment.

As a Dallas Electrician with over 27 years of experience, ElectricMan Inc. has seen many of the dangers of DIY Electrical first hand, and has often been called in to make repairs after a DIY home improvement project has gone wrong, or the home owner realized that they were in over their head. The experience to take on any electrical home improvement project is something that is obtained by years of professional training and experience under a Licensed Master Electrician. That kind of experience isn’t something that the average Do-It-Yourselfer has, even if you do consider yourself a Jack-Of-All Trades.

One of the biggest dangers of DIY Electrical work is simply the fact that electricity can be deadly when not handled properly. Many DIY home improvement projects are often done in a hurry, and without proper planning. Something as simple as forgetting to switch off the breaker, using the wrong tools for the job, or even accidentally brushing up against the wrong wire can send high voltage coursing through a human body, easily causing burns, ventricular fibrillation (uncontrolled movement of the heart muscles), and death. We are so accustomed to being able to flip a switch and use electricity in our daily life that we often forgot how powerful it truly is.

One of the major causes for DIY Electrical accidents is unfamiliarity with the electrical circuits in your home. Due to shoddy electrical workmanship in many older homes, it is often difficult to tell which outlets, appliances, and lighting fixtures are on a given circuit, especially if your breaker box was improperly labeled, or if the labeling has faded over time. Most home owners will simply switch off breakers until they see the lights turn off in the area that they will be working, and assume it is safe to start working. This is an incredibly dangerous practice since it is not always the case that all outlets and lighting fixtures in an area will be on the same circuit. A Licensed Dallas Electrician will be familiar with standard wiring practices and will know the proper way to test the circuit that they will be working on to ensure that it is safe.

Another huge benefit to using a licensed electrician for your home electrical work is that they will be well versed in all of the building and safety codes required to make sure the job is done right. The reason that this is important is two-fold. First, it is legally required to adhere to all building and safety codes, and if you ever intend on selling your home or having it inspected for any other reason, a DIY Electrical repair or addition will cause your home to fail inspection if building and safety codes are not followed to the letter, generally costing you more money later down the line to have an improperly performed job repaired. Secondly, and even more important, is the fact that building and safety codes are put in place for a reason. If you are not familiar with these codes or do not follow them, you are putting yourself and your family at risk of electrical shock, electrical fires, and injury or death due to a faulty repair.

A reliable Licensed Dallas Electrician such as ElectricMan Inc. will ensure that any home improvement project involving electricity in your home is completed correctly, in compliance with all of the proper safety and building codes, and will guarantee their work to ensure a successful outcome, and the safety of you and your family. If you would like to learn more about the capabilities and experience of ElectricMan Inc. or discuss a project or repair that you are planning for your home, reach out to us today by phone at 972-792-7270, or visit us at our website at www.electricmaninc.com!