Zinsco or GTE-Sylvania panels were incredibly popular during the 70s. Despite Zinsco no longer being around today, many homes still have these panels inside. The circuit breaker in these panels can melt to the main bus bar, hindering the breaker’s ability to trip when it needs to. If there is a short circuit, the wires can melt and cause a fire. Not all Zinsco panels are at risk, so have an electrician look at yours if your home has one.

Federal Pacific Electric panels are extremely unsafe, despite being installed into millions of homes throughout the 50s to 80s. These panels’ circuit breakers fail to trip when there is a circuit overload or short circuit. If a panel’s circuit breaker doesn’t trip when it’s supposed to, it can lead to an electrical fire in your home. If your breaker box has “Federal Pacific Electric” written on the front and “Stab-Lok” branded on the inside of the panel, your home could be at risk.

Fuses boxes are not inherently dangerous. In fact, many homes have fuse boxes and are not at risk. The risk with fuses comes from using them in an unsafe way to serve today’s energy demands. By placing too many things on a single circuit, replacing a fuse with a bigger fuse, or replacing the fuse with something metal creates a potential fire hazard.

Again, these kinds of panels are not dangerous by themselves. What makes them dangerous is the fact that they haven’t been used for over 40 years. If your home has a split-bus electrical panel, it could be past its expected lifespan. The circuit breakers may not trip as they are designed to.

Summer storms can get pretty wild with raging winds and crazy rain and hail. Power companies do their best to build power grids that can withstand some of the worst Mother Nature has to offer, but it isn’t always enough. There are times when power lines get taken down and residents are left sitting in the dark. Brief outages are not usually an issue, but outages that extend for several hours can be devastating. Any food in the refrigerator and freezer will likely need to be tossed resulting in an expensive waste of food. An electrician in Glendale, like those at The Electric Connection, can help you prevent damage by installing a standby generator.

A standby generator can save you from losing all the food that would otherwise become unsafe to eat after an extended power outage. The generators can also keep your life as normal as possible despite a raging storm right outside your windows. Families with young children are likely familiar with the need to maintain a normal routine that will keep the kids feeling safe. Lights are another major factor. Lights add comfort and security. It can be dangerous walking around your house in the dark.

Because the generator will need to be wired directly into your home’s electric panel, it is important to hire somebody who is familiar with Glendale electrical codes and standards. Once the installation is complete, you won’t have to worry about doing anything else. The generator automatically turns within seconds of the main power grid failing.

There are various sizes of generators and you will want to choose one based on your power needs. You can discuss this with your electrician before buying the generator. If you are ready to schedule your generator installation or have any questions about generators, give The Electric Connection a call today.

As the rest of the world is observing Discovery Channel®’s legendary Shark Week 2014, we at Mr. Electric® took it upon ourselves to set aside this time to celebrate what we have endearingly termed Spark Week. While the fascinating facts and featured film clips of the mystifying creatures are fun and interesting to watch, we believe the electric spark is just as deserving of our appreciation for a week as sharks are – especially taking into consideration that electricity wouldn’t exist without it.

As far back as 600 BC, a Greek philosopher by the name of Thales of Miletus discovered that when amber is rubbed with a cloth, it can be electrified and attract other objects and produce sparks. German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Leibniz made the association of sparks with electrical phenomena in 1671. There were some more experiments performed in 1708 by Samuel Wall with amber rubbed with cloth to produce sparks. And finally, the story we are all familiar with, in 1972 Thomas-Francois Dalibard and Benjamin Franklin each independently demonstrated that lighting and electricity were the same thing. Ben even extracted sparks from a cloud during a thunderstorm with his famous kite experiment.

The discovery of the electric spark encouraged electrical research. Once scientists began to understand how electric sparks occurred in nature, the question became how that power could be harnessed and controlled. This was the beginning of electricity.

Spark plugs begin the combustion in your car’s engine, allowing you to start your car every morning. The discovery of the electric spark led to the development of spark-gap transmitters. While these transmitters are no longer used in radio communication today, they played a large part in the beginning of wireless communication. Without sparks, you would have a much harder time driving, listening to music, and even seeing in the dark. The discovery of sparks is one of the most important scientific advances in history, so don’t forget to celebrate Spark Week!

Solving electrical problems and doing electrical repairs can be risky things to do if you don’t know exactly what you are doing.  Sometimes it is absolutely necessary to hire a certified electrician to do these things for you so that you don’t put yourself or your property at risk.  Here are some key things you should keep in mind when choosing an electrician.

Certifications: You should always feel free to ask an electrician about their certifications; if they aren’t willing to answer your questions about it, they probably aren’t the right electrician for you.  There are different levels of training that an electrician must go through before earning certifications.  Typically, they start out as an electrician apprentice working under the direct supervision of a journeyman and the general supervision of a master electrician.  A master electrician has the highest level of certification and more experience than an apprentice or a journeyman.

References: A good electrician should always be able to give you references if you ask for them.  Any hesitation in this area is not a good sign.  It is a good idea to check with the references that the electrician gives you before hiring them.

Insurance: It is very important to hire an electrician that carries the proper insurance.  Without proper insurance, you could be responsible for any damages they happen to cause, such as an electrical fire or other accidents. Did you know that electricians are only required to have $300,000 worth of coverage? Be sure to confirm that you are hiring an insured electrician.

Communication: It is also important for the electrician you hire to have great communication skills.  They should be friendly, courteous, interested in your problem, and listen to your concerns.  They should also be upfront about costs and give you an estimate of how long the project should take.

Keep all of these things in mind as you seek out someone for electrical consulting.  For Dallas electrical repairs, www.ElectricManInc.com offers 27 years of industry experience, and they are open 24 hours a day.  They have a master electrician on staff, they are properly insured, and they offer free estimates.

About ElectricMan Inc.

ElectricMan Inc. is one of Dallas’ most trusted electricians. Nick Schaeffer, Mr. ElectricMan himself, has quite the resume for a master electrician. He started the company by himself in 2004 and hasn’t looked back since! For more information about Electricman’s list of electrical repair services, please visit www.ElectricManInc.com