Facts to Know
Anything over your head or requires a permit
The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports over 20,000 fires a year and hundreds of deaths and injuries caused by faulty wiring. Knowing your limits is the most humble act of anyone who’s thinking of performing home repairs or remodeling. If something seems off and you are not comfortable in trying it, DON’T! Nothing is more important than your family’s safety and the risk of damage to your home and property. Trying to fix something you aren’t sure about could cost you dearly and you will end up calling an electrician anyway. But Hey, don’t stop those amazing home repairs and awesome weekend fixer upper projects! Every job has it’s risk, some just more than others. Here are the 6 most common causes of electrical fires 1. Loose connections are a big culprit of electrical fires. A loose connection arcs creating heat until eventually bursting into flames. connections should always be made by a qualified Electrician. 2. Most electrical fires are caused by faulty electrical outlets and old outdated appliances. Other fires are started by faults in appliance cords, receptacles and switches. Never use an appliance with a worn or frayed cord which can send heat onto combustible surfaces like floors, curtains, and rugs that can start a fire. Running cords under rugs is another cause of electrical fires. Removing the grounding plug from a cord so it can be used in a two-prong electrical outlet can also cause a fire. The reason appliances have the extra prong is so they can be only used in outlets that can handle the extra amount of electricity that these appliances draw. 3. Light fixtures, lamps and light bulbs are another common reason for electrical fires. Installing a bulb with a wattage that is too high for the lamps and light fixtures is a leading cause of electrical fires. Always check the maximum recommended bulb wattage on any lighting fixture or lamp and never go over the recommended amount. Another cause of fire is placing materials like cloth or paper over a lampshade. The material heats up and ignites causing a fire. Faulty lamps and light fixtures also frequently result in fires.4. Misuse of extension cords is another electrical fire cause. Appliances should be plugged directly into outlet and not plugged into an extension cord for any length of time. Only use extension cords as a temporary measure. If you do not have the appropriate type of outlets for your appliances hire an electrician to install new ones. 5. Space heaters are a major cause of electrical fires. Because these types of heaters are portable many times people put them too close to combustible surfaces such as curtains, beds, clothing, chairs, couches and rugs. Coil space heaters are especially dangerous because the coils become so hot they will almost instantaneously ignite any nearby flammable surface. If you do use space heaters use the radiator type that diffuse heat over the entire surface of the appliance. These are less likely to ignite flammable items, but should still be kept away from them. 6. Outdated wiring often causes electrical fires. If a home is over twenty years old it may not have the wiring capacity to handle the increased amounts of electrical appliances in today’s average home, such as computers, wide screen televisions, DVD players, microwaves and air conditioners. Understand the color spectrum This is where personal preference and style really come into play. Light bulbs come in a variety of shades and each of these colors has a temperature rating that is measured in degrees Kelvin. The lower the Kelvin number (between 2,700 and 3,000) the more yellow the light and the higher the Kelvin (between 5,500 and 6,500), the bluer the light. White light is usually around 3,500 to 4,100. We suggest buying several bulbs, each with a different Kelvin number to figure out which best suits your decor and your space. Every shade of white is good for a different reason. Modern spaces look better in whiter light, and traditional mahogany clad rooms look better in a more yellow light. Daylight or a whiter higher Kelvin light is more popular in the Southern regions of the United States, a more yellow lower Kelvin light is preferred in the North. Call West Shore Electric LLC if your looking for some lighting design advice, We’re here to help! What is a surge suppressor? surge suppressor (sometimes optimistically called a “surge protector”) is a device inserted in the alternating current ( AC ) utility line and/or telephone line to prevent damage to electronic equipment from voltage “spikes” called transients. A more accurate term for this type of device is “transient suppressor.” A typical surge suppressor is a small box with several utility outlets, a power switch, and a 3-wire cord for plugging into a wall outlet. There are also whole house units that connect to your electric service panel which you would need to have installed by a qualified electrician. In most countries where electronic equipment is used, the effective AC utility voltage is 110 to 120 volts; the peak voltage is on the order of plus-or-minus 160 to 170 volts at a frequency of 60 hertz . But transients, which arise from various causes, commonly reach peak levels of several hundred volts. These pulses are of short duration, measured in microseconds (units of 10 -6 second), but in that time, they can cause hardware to malfunction. The worst type of transient occurs when lightning strikes in the vicinity (it is not necessary for a power line to be directly hit). Such a “spike” can peak at thousands of volts and cause permanent damage to equipment. A surge suppressor prevents the peak AC voltage from going above a certain threshold such as plus-or-minus 200 volts. Semiconductor devices are used for this purpose. The power line is effectively short-circuited to electrical ground for transient pulses exceeding the threshold, while the flow of normal 60-Hz current is unaffected. For the suppressor to work, a 3-wire AC power connection must be used. “Cheater” adapters, which allow 3-wire appliances to be used with 2-wire outlets or extension cords, defeat the electrical ground connection and render most surge suppressors ineffective. Like most people, you probably haven’t stopped and really thought about exactly how many devices you have in your home that are plugged into a power outlet. So do it now. Go ahead. I’ll wait…. So why do you need a surge suppressor?Now, think about how many of your devices have some sort of electronic or digital component inside them. It’s probably more than you realize. The obvious ones are TVs, video game consoles, Blu-ray and DVD players, audio and home theater equipment, satellite receivers, alarm systems, and computer equipment (including routers, modems, and printers). But there are plenty of additional devices in your home that you may not realize have at least one electronic control board inside — such as your air conditioner, washer and dryer, garage door openers, security cameras, and nearly everything in your kitchen from the oven, to the stove, to the fridge, to the microwave, and maybe even your toaster! And one thing that all these electronic devices have in common is that they hate power surges. I’d wager that you’re probably already aware of the importance of surge protection for electronic devices… and you may even have a few devices plugged in to surge protectors throughout your house. You probably also believe that if you experience a nearby lightning strike, or some other type of power surge, your “expensive” stuff is fully protected. Unfortunately, it probably isn’t. And there’s probably only a handful of homeowners out there with everything protected. That’s why a whole-house surge protector is a crucial element of a comprehensive power protection strategy. There are several different types of whole home surge protectors. I’ll cover the three most common here: Type 1 Surge Protection Devices A Type 1 SPD protects against external power surges, such as those caused by lightning or when your power company switches capacitor banks on your power grid. Type 1 SPDs are installed on the “line side” of your main service entrance, between the utility pole and your power meter, right where power comes into your house. Type 2 Surge Protection Devices A Type 2 SPD is installed at your “branch panel” (more commonly referred to as your breaker panel). It’s called your branch panel because it “branches” the power coming from your service panel out to all the circuits in your house. A Type 2 SPD (sometimes called a “panel protector”) wires directly to a dual-pole breaker in your panel, and can protect all the circuits in that panel, as well as any sub-panels that might be connected “downstream.” Type 3 Surge Protection Devices A Type 3 SPD is the one you’re probably already familiar with, such as a surge strip or battery backup unit with surge protection. Type 3s are used at the “point of use,” meaning you plug the device(s) you want to protect directly into an outlet on the Type 3 surge protector, then plug the surge protector into a standard power outlet. Most people use Type 3 devices as their first and only protection for your devices against power surges, but (as their name suggests) they’re actually designed to be the third and final chance to protect your device against a power surge… before your device takes the hit. Your investment in electronics (and appliances with electronics) in use in your home is probably greater than you realize. For a few hundred dollars (which includes installation by an electrician), you can protect those devices against power surges, which are far more common that you think. Keep visiting us for updates |
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