A modern convenience often taken for granted, electric power, can be found everywhere. To route electricity from the power station to your wall outlet requires many steps. Residential house wiring includes a variety of wiring and control devices to ensure safe and reliable service.

Electricity in the home is distributed by means of branch circuits. Furthermore, each branch circuit is supplied via a circuit breaker sized per the expected load on the circuit. A typical lighting and receptacle circuit will be rated at 15A. Because of their size, larger loads like ovens, clothes dryers, and air conditioning units are given dedicated circuit breakers.

A typical home can have dozens of 15A circuits, and several 20A, 30A, or even 50A circuits. Yet the total of all these breakers is much more than the size of the main breaker. However, this is intentional. It’s highly unlikely that every circuit will be fully loaded at any one time, so a demand factor is taken into account to keep the main breaker at a reasonable size.

A wood-framed home will typically use solid copper non-metallic sheathed cable for the majority of wiring applications. Solid conductors are easy to terminate and cheaper than equivalent stranded wire. The AWG size of the wire is determined by the expected load on the circuit and by the size of the breaker protecting it. You should never connect a wire to a breaker that is too large to protect it, as an overloaded wire can easily catch fire.

The warm weather has finally arrived and it looks like we have a good summer ahead of us. This is also the time when the electrical bills start to heat up as well. But keeping your house cool doesn’t need to cost you a fortune. Ceiling fans are an easy way to keep your thermostat up and your electrical bills down. Here are some summer maintenance tips for to get your ceiling fan moving its best.

Overtime a ceiling fan’s blades can collect dust. Once dust has accumulated on the blades, it can become airborne during use. This either spreads the dust through the air, which is not enjoyable for anyone in the room, or it can be sucked into the motor. If to much dust is drawn into the motor it can result in shaking and cause the motor to run hot. This can lead to an expensive repair bills down the road. Dust, vacuum, or use a damp rag to clean the blades every couple of weeks to prevent this build up and keep your fan clean.

Most machines with moving parts require lubrication on a regular basis. Older ceiling fans require lubrication while newer fans are self-lubricating. If you are unsure whether your fan requires lubrication, check the owner’s manual. If your fan is not properly lubricated the motor can become damaged and cause electrical fires.

When starting up your fan for the summer, there are several problems that can generate because of lack of maintenance:

Ceiling fans can be one of the most cost effect ways to keep your home cool this summer.