Every summer, more and more homes experience outages in their electric systems. As a top Dallas Electrician, my electricians and I see the effects of these outages every day. They can be devastating, and cause a lot of damage.  In fact, the insurance industry pays out over $1 billion in damages annually in claims caused by outages and power surge damage. Most outages are caused by the weather, but there are different kinds of weather can cause an outage. This even includes weather that doesn’t produce lighting damage like the massive ice storms we saw during Super Bowl week this year that left hundreds of thousands without power (and, more importantly, without heat!) during one of the worst winter storms in years. Summer storms can produce devastating tornadoes that can knock out power for miles around the area they touch down in, and many hurricanes begin to build in the summer and early fall, causing catastrophic results even outside of the disaster zone. Hurricane Ike left over two million people without power when it hit southeast Texas in 2008, and not all of them were in the impact zone.

Not every outage comes from something as dramatic as a hurricane or tornado.  A lightning strike, even as far as half a mile away, can potentially cause damage to your delicate electrical equipment and appliances. Often, large-scale outages can occur when lightning strikes a transformer.

Outages don’t just occur because of bad weather:  many outages are caused by power equipment switching to accommodate the heavy load people put on the power grid.  Our power grid is already having trouble with its current load, and the problem only grows as more and more people use more and more electricity.  Summer in Dallas and Fort Worth is the perfect examples.  It’s when people are running their air conditioners constantly. This puts an incredible load on local and state power grids.  This leads to government agencies putting out warnings almost every summer about potential power outages, threatening brownouts and blackouts unless people conserve energy.

These outages aren’t damaging in themselves, but they leave open the possibility for electrical power surge damage.  You’ve probably noticed that when the power comes back on after an outage, it often flickers on and off quickly as the power grid attempts to get the electricity flowing back into your lines.  This stop-and-start action creates surges that can easily damage unprotected electronics or appliances.  Having a nice TV damaged like this is a very expensive hassle, and you can imagine how much more expensive and uncomfortable it could be if the surge takes out your air conditioner and refrigerator!

So, what can you do to keep power outages and power surges from affecting you?

Some of these options can even help you save money on your electric bill without the hassle of gas, fumes, or noise pollution.

Smoke alarms have been required in homes, apartment buildings, and offices for many years. Regulations on carbon monoxide detectors are far more recent, but it’s vital to know whether a potential carbon monoxide leak could make your family members sick. The people at Nest, the same company that brought us the Nest Learning Thermostat, recognized a need for a combination smoke detector and CO detector and created a product that alerts you to danger in a unique way that helps you to feel that your home is protected no matter where you are.

We’ll look at the many benefits of integrated fire alarms and CO detectors in this guide, but be sure to call on a professional for installation. At FB Electrical Services, we’ll make sure that the unit is installed in the most accurate location for smoke and CO detection, that all of the electrical components are working properly, and that the detectors in each room are interconnected.

The electrical system of a home is the system that receives the most use and which you depend on more than any other during the average day. Although your plumbing and HVAC systems are also important for daily life, nothing impairs your lifestyle more than a faulty electrical system.

Many homeowners, in their haste to have electrical troubles fixed, will attempt to handle the repairs on their own. Some may try to tackle the job to save money, or because of an interest in “do-it-yourself” hobbies. We understand all three of these motives, but for a number of very important reasons you should not attempt the work yourself. Nor should you hire amateur electricians to do it either.

The 3 Best Reasons To Hire Professionals for Electrical Repairs in Shoreline, WA