Are you harboring unwanted guests in your home? Rats, mice, squirrels and even raccoons are notorious for taking up residence in people's homes without asking. In addition to being a health hazard to your family, rodents love to chew, and seem to have a particular penchant for the insulation on your electrical work, which can damage your home systems and even cause a fire. Read on for tips on how to prevent these furry pests.

Watch Out for the Telltale Signs of Rats

How do you know if you have rodents sharing your home? Try these tips to track them down:

Mice, Rats and Squirrels All Have to Go

When you do discover a rodent infiltration, you need to act right away to get rid of them before they can wreak havoc on your electrical work:

Don't Neglect to Repair the Damage

If you suspect rodents have been chewing on your electrical work, get in touch with an expert electrician immediately to assess the damage and perform any necessary repairs.

If the motor seems to be fine, attempt to reconnect it to a load. For motors spinning in the wrong direction that are three-phase, swap any two leads either in the starter or in the motor connection box to reverse its rotational direction. Motors that struggle with a load may have something plugged up or jammed in the load itself. A mechanic may be required to check fans, belts, or pumps that are powered by a motor. When a motor trips the overload device, attach an anmeter to measure the current during startup and operation. Check the FLA on the motor nameplate to see what the expected current draw should be. If it is high, the motor may simply be overloaded. If not, the overload protection device may be set too low or may need replacing.

By following these basic ac motor troubleshooting tips, any electrician can quickly determine the cause of most problems in an AC motor.

Maciej Winiarcyzk using more than two thousand digital photographs just over a month ago.

I have never had the privilege of seeing the northern lights in real life, but my sister lives in northern Canada and has told me about them. (She’s a pretty credible source: She even named her daughter Aurora.) After asking her, “What ARE the northern lights,” several times, I now understand the aurora borealis to be a visual effect of the collision of solar wind and magnetospheric charged particles with the thermosphere. Can you see why I had to ask what the northern lights were more than once? The northern lights are most spectacular near the North Pole and during spring and autumn equinoxes. (And, by the way, no. The northern lights are not Santa’s off-season hobby.) But the northern lights, if there are some geomagnetic storms a-brewin’, can be seen closer to home, too, visible occasionally as far south as Chicago or New York.

Anyway, this guy Winiarcyzk is an astronomy enthusiast who lives in Caithness, which is at the tippy top of Scotland. There’s isn’t much light pollution way up there, so it’s a good place for such a sky-minded person to live and enjoy his hobby. Wonderfully, with this time lapse video of the northern lights, we get to enjoy his hobby, too.

Take a look. Have you ever seen anything more lovely occurring in nature? You know, with all this solar wind, magnetospheric particles, thermospheres, and geomagnetic storms, it sure seems like there is a lot more going on in nature than we can readily sense.