Most people don’t think about all the switches and connections that happen when you flick a switch or hit the power button on an appliance – at least, not until the item doesn’t work. The electricity in your home travels over an amazing, complex system, and there can be a lot of reasons why you may need Circuit breakers are not one-size-fits all, and there are 3 important items to review before installing any circuit breaker into an electrical box: the load capacity, whether or not the breaker is compatible with the others in your electrical panel and the limitations of a particular circuit breaker, which will tell you how and what a circuit breaker will protect. Faulty circuit breakers need to be replaced as they cannot be repaired.

Improperly Sized Electrical Panel

The electrical panel in your home is designed to deliver and manage a specific amount of electricity. If the panel is too small, you may trip circuit breakers consistently, causing appliances to shut down. Having too much power flow through your electrical box has the potential to give electrical shocks and cause fires. Adding a room to your home requires more than just adding another circuit breaker; the panel has to be able to deliver and manage the needed electricity for the new space. This is why it’s important to always hire a professional for all electrical work.

If you are experiencing electrical issues in your home, don’t try to repair the problems yourself. Instead, call the people you can trust: 3 Causes of Electrical Issues in Your Home.

Did you know that proper surge protection could help avoid short circuits and fire hazards?  In fact, using up-to-date surge protectors (suppressors) for your appliances, or even your entire house, could save you thousands of dollars in property damage. These are just a few reasons why surge protection should be of the utmost importance for you and your home this holiday season.

What are power surges?

First, before diving deeper into the different advantages of protecting your home against power surges, it’s important to understand what electrical surges are, and why they’re such a concern. An electrical surge, also known as a “voltage surge”, is an electrical disturbance that can be caused by a variety of spikes in voltage. More specifically, these surges are usually caused by lightning strikes, power outages, short circuits, or tripped circuit breakers. Problems occur when these short spikes in electrical power overload circuits in home appliances and other electronics.

Why is it so important to protect your home against power surges?

For starters, power surges can be very dangerous for you, your family, and your house. Surges are one of the most common causes of house fires, usually resulting from a combination of faulty wiring and irresponsible electronics hook-up by homeowners. This is especially apparent around the holidays.

According to the Cheltenham Fire Department, “when putting up holiday lighting, surge protectors should be used instead of relying on extension cords.” Now, more than ever, people should be cautious about electrical disturbances and the possible danger they pose to their electronics—and even more importantly—their lives.

Even if a power surge doesn’t turn out to be dangerous, it can still be very costly.  As a matter of fact, power surges can pack enough of a punch to short the power supply in a desktop computer, television set, or even a microwave. Basically, anything with internal electronic circuits can be affected by a voltage surge.  That’s why it’s imperative that everyone use surge protectors for each and every appliance in their home.  At the very minimum, one should consider whole-house surge protection, or even just safeguarding higher-priced appliances such as LCD Televisions, microwaves, and desktop computers.

The Benefits of Power Conditioning and how controlled voltage delivery could save you money

Aside from protecting your home from voltage surges, you should also consider the amount of energy that is wasted from many of your appliances. And remember that with wasted energy comes wasted money.

One money-saving solution may be installing power conditioners in your home. Simply put, a power conditioner is a device that delivers clean (steady) power to your devices. It is designed to distribute a stabilized and continuous voltage level which eliminates dips and line static—important for all of you who own surround sound systems in your home theater.

As a consumer, it’s important to be informed about devices and services that can save you money, improve the longevity of your investments (e.g., Flat-panel television, etc.), and even protect your home.

If you have any more questions about power surging, or if you decide that you would like to look into protecting your home against electrical surges, contact our helpful team at ElectricMan Inc. We are here 24-hours a day, 7 days a week to serve you.

You’ve packed the swimsuits and the sunscreen, the bug spray and the camera, but did you remember to properly lock up and secure your home? While making that long vacation “to-do” list, don’t forget to include the proper safeguarding of your home on your list before you head off on your summer getaway.

If you’ll be away from your home for an extended amount of time, you might want to consider hiring a house sitter. Someone actually living in your home can help keep it safe from thieves, and your house sitter can also water your plants, retrieve your mail and newspapers, mow your lawn, or even take care of your pets while you’re away. And because your home will continue to look lived-in, it can hold less of an appeal to burglars. Hiring a house sitter is not the cheapest option for home security, but it can solve many problems at once and it is likely to be a solution that will give you the most peace of mind while you are away from home.

Nothing says “I’m not home” more than yellowed newspapers on your doorstep and mail overcrowding your mailbox. If you’ll be leaving your home for an lengthy holiday and if you don’t have someone you can ask to retrieve your mail and newspapers each day, you can ask for a stop delivery on both. The United States Postal Service will stop delivery and will hold your mail for up to 30 days for free, and you can either cancel your newspaper subscription or choose a stop delivery on your newsprint for however long you’ll be away. All you have to do is ask, whether in person or possibly even online.

With social media and online networking an ever-present entity in modern times, it’s easy to want to brag about your upcoming cruise or your month long road trip across America to all your online friends and family. But you may be unwittingly letting criminals know when your home will be an empty and easy target. Keep in mind that online information can be read by anyone, often even if your accounts are private, and you probably don’t want the entire world knowing that your property and home will be unattended during your vacation.

Don’t make your home a tempting target for possible criminals. Remembering to secure your home while you’re away can help keep your home and property safe, as well as help relieve any possible worries you might have so that you can actually relax and enjoy that much-needed vacation.

We can’t understate the importance of properly-functioning main electrical panels. If this is one aspect of your electrical system you haven’t got checked recently, it’s crucial you do so without delay. When the cooler/extremely hot season rolls in, people tend to spend more time indoors and that results in higher energy usage as the HVAC systems are operated for longer periods of time. At this time, the last thing you want is a malfunction in the main electrical panel; that can prove to be a hazard for you and your family members.

Today, most homes have a large number of electrical installations and the electrical panel plays a key role in connecting and powering all of these. This means, if the latter either malfunctions or stops working altogether, that can impact all the electrical systems on your property; they may be rendered unsafe or may fail to work. When you ensure that the electrical panel is in working order, it ensures these systems are able to keep up with the electrical usage patterns on your property.

It’s not uncommon for homeowners to keep on adding electrical appliances to their home; but this isn’t something you can do unendingly. Your home’s maximum electrical output is limited, as well as determined by the electrical panel installed on your property. In simple terms this means if you are planning on making some additions/extensions to your home or are considering adding some heavy-duty electrical appliances, it’s vital that you consult a reliable local electrician before you do so.

They will inspect the system, test its output and assess whether the existing panel would be able to bear the load of the new, potential output. Even if the former is below the maximum potential output, it might be a better idea to get the main electrical panel upgraded anyway.

It will ensure you are able to enjoy an uninterrupted power supply even if you have multiple heavy load electrical appliances operating simultaneously on your premises. If you are doubtful about whether your electrical panel needs to be upgraded, contact your electrician and get their advice on what the best plan of action would be.

While having an older main electrical panel isn’t necessarily a bad thing, there are certain aspects you should watch out for, such as:

Even the semi-modern panels that have the flappable circuit-breakers are able to keep your appliances as well as your home protected from high electrical surges. When it comes to electrical systems, it’s never a good idea to compromise on the safety aspect and keeping the main electrical panel upgraded is the one way to maintain that.

If you are considering adding any extensions to your home, growing your home’s living space in any other way, are concerned about the safety of your existing electrical panel or are adding any electrical appliances or installations on your property, call us at AllRound Electrical for a consultation today.