Decorating for Halloween involves jack-o-lanterns, cobwebs, ghosts, ghouls, witches, skeletons and more. One of the most exciting parts of decorating is putting up lights! Different colors, shapes, and sizes can take a home or yard to another level. Along with this new level of appeal comes a new level of safety hazards, though. To ensure your Halloween goes smoothly for your family, Mr. Electric® wants you to know the precautions you should take to safely power tomorrow.

Before decorating, count the number of outlets available and take note of where they are located so you can plan your displays accordingly. This will allow for a safe distribution of use among different outlets and prevent you from having strings of lights stretching across the floor or yard. Those are both huge hazards that can be avoided by planning.

Carefully look over all of your decorations. Any bare wires, damaged sockets, or loose connections could cause very serious shocks or start fires. According to the National Fire Protection Association, about one-third of the house fires involving decorative lighting were caused by electrical failures or malfunctions. You can prevent it by simply taking the time to inspect.

Outdoor lights are made for outdoor use, and indoor lights are made for indoor use. It’s really important to remember this. When decorating, always double-check to make sure that they are meant to be used in that location. The same rules go for extension cords and other electrical decorations.

Just like other electrical appliances in your home, it’s not safe or necessary to have your lights on when you are away from home or asleep. Have them on only when you are able to actively monitor them.

Decorations are so much fun that we often forget that they come with imminent dangers. It’s nothing to be frightened by (like many other Halloween things), but being aware can be the difference between Halloween fun and a night of terror. To explain just how important we think these tips are, we wrote you a haiku.

Halloween is here.

Source:

The National Weather Service is predicting a lighter hurricane season than normal this year, but that doesn’t mean everyone shouldn’t be prepared. As we’ve seen in the very recent past, it only takes one major storm to make landfall and throw everything into chaos. One of the best ways to prepare for a major storm is to make sure you have a properly maintained standby generator. Consumerreports.org has some excellent advice for those who are looking for or who already own standby generators—read on for some great tips!

Depending on what you plan on running in the event of a power outage, you’ll need a different size of generator:

Midsized standby generators (5k – 8.5k watts): standby generators of this size can power the refrigerator and sump pump as well as most lights in your home, a portable heater, computer, and heating system.

Large standby generators (10k to 15k watts): large standby generators can power everything a midsized standby generator can, along with a small water heater, central air conditioner, electric range, clothes washer, or electric dryer (although not all at once).

While we don’t often feel the brunt of major hurricanes around here, we still live in a risky area and it’s important that proper precautions are taken. Here is a list of hurricane preparedness tips from Ready.gov:

Before the hurricane:

When a hurricane is likely in your area:

During the storm:

After the storm:

We don’t often experience major hurricanes in our area, but it’s still important to be prepared! Kolb Electric sells and installs Generac generators, so if you want to be extra prepared this hurricane season, call us today!