If you’ve ever seen “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” you’ll know that Clark Griswold’s perception of Christmas decorating is a bit extreme.  Although that movie is comical, in reality electrical safety is no laughing matter, and an electrical fire can ruin your holidays instantly.  Here are a few holiday decorating safety tips.

Electricity is an integral part of every home and it would be difficult to find a single room in your house that doesn’t have an appliance or fixture that doesn’t operate on electricity. That’s how reliant we are on it. Despite the fact that we can’t really function without it, electricity can be an extremely dangerous commodity; and if you have children in your home, you would have to take extra measures to ensure they are protected from electricity in the home.

Any parent who has had a toddler in the house will tell you that their little one was at one time or the other, fascinated by electrical wires, electrical outlets and appliances. Most children are very curious at that age and don’t think twice before putting a dangling table lamp wire into their mouth or they may try to insert their little fingers into an open socket etc. In short, your home becomes nothing less than a danger zone for your child.

The good news is that it’s possible to address most of these dangers and protect your children from the hazards that these electrical installations pose. Here are some of the things that can be done:

Electricity is something that poses a distinct danger to children. As a parent or a caregiver, it’s your responsibility to be proactive with protecting children from this potential danger. For installation of child-proof electrical installations, call Allround Electrical at 1300 169 263. You can also drop us a line via email.

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If you’ve ever seen “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” you’ll know that Clark Griswold’s perception of Christmas decorating is a bit extreme.  Although that movie is comical, in reality electrical safety is no laughing matter, and an electrical fire can ruin your holidays instantly.  Here are a few holiday decorating safety tips.

The holidays are meant to be enjoyed with friends and loved ones, and by following these few safety tips, you can help to make sure you’re not a victim of a “Clark Griswold” Christmas.  If you want to learn more about your home’s current electrical state, contact the best electrician Plano has to offer.

Happy Holidays!

To most people, circuit panels are the first place they go when power fails to a room.  The loud click heard when a space heater or hair dryer overloads a circuit usually calls for a quick trip to flip a circuit breaker back on.  Every building depends on the circuit panel for safety and electrical management for the home.  The electrical panel for your home, along with the attached circuit breaker, serves to delegate power throughout the home.  By splitting up power demands, it prevents overloads in separate rooms and isolates individual features and appliances.

You may be wondering why we need to split up circuits the way we do.  If all of our devices operate on 120 volts, why do we need separate circuits?  The answer has to do with the physical quirks of wiring.  You see, while everything operates off of the 120 volts delivered by your home’s wiring, the power demands are different for each device.  As power is applied to a circuit, current flows over the wiring and heats it up.  The higher your power demands, the more current is flowing through the wires.

The wires in your home can only handle a set amount of current (most circuits are 20-amp circuits) before they overheat and begin to ignite insulation around them.  If you placed every light, appliance, and TV in your home on the same electrical circuit, you’d reach this thermal limit almost immediately.  To prevent his, we install circuit breakers to help separate energy demands to specific rooms.  We also separate the energy load to create special appliance circuits.  This is why your HVAC unit is on a separate circuit from your kitchen and your laundry room.  Appliance circuits use thicker wires which are designed to handle higher electrical loads.  High current circuits are expensive, so homes are designed to use them sparingly.

This is also why you should only ever replace breakers and fuses with new units that have the same tolerance.  Circuit breakers are designed to be the weakest link in a system.  They must trip before anything on the circuit itself would fail.  This safety feature means that the breaker will trip before wiring overheats or appliances are damaged by high-current draw.  If you do need to replace a breaker, always match it with the same current-rating.

Power surges are another reason we separate circuits in a home.  Whenever a load is applied to the system (you turn on a hair dryer, electrical appliance, or even a lamp) inrush current is also applied.  Inrush-current is the initial surge of power that occurs when current is increased.  Extra power is applied across the system, which causes a risk of electrical damage when a high-power device is applied to a low-power circuits.  To mitigate this, high-load motors such as those in power tools, HVAC systems, and other appliances are plugged into special appliance circuits.  This is also why you should plug sensitive low-voltage electronics into surge protectors.

Sometimes electrical panels can wear out.  While the signs are clear when you know what to look for, without experience you have no way of knowing if it’s time to replace your panel.  Get an inspection for your electrical panel if:

If, however, you happen to notice one of two logos, Federal Pacific Electric (FPE) or Zinsco, you should call for a replacement immediately.  These older models of electrical panels are unsafe and should be replaced quickly.

For the best in quality electrical repair work and installations, contact the professionals at Custom Electric!  Be sure to check back here each week for helpful advice, news, and guides or follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

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