As technology advances through home appliances, personal gadgets, and smart devices it is important for all of us to make sure our electrical systems can handle our demands. That’s why we encourage you to check your electrical wiring and fixtures once a year to make sure they are up to date and in good working order. Whether you’ve been a homeowner for years or this is your first home, the safety of your home’s electricity should be a priority and something that can easily be checked on an annual basis.
Start with your breaker panel as it’s important that someone in the home knows where it’s located and how to turn on, turn off or reset a circuit breaker when needed. As part of an annual check, look to see if the breaker panel and the circuit breakers have any rust or damage like stickiness or corrosion. If they do, make sure to call a dependable electrical repair company in Orange County, like Accurate Electric Plumbing Heating & Air. We are the go-to electrical service company for your home, or residential rental property. As a family-run company we focus on customer satisfaction by providing detail-oriented work with a polite and friendly presence.
Next, check with your bathrooms, kitchen and laundry room as they should all have electrical plugs equipped with ground fault circuit interrupters or GFCI. These are the reset buttons and they help to prevent shock where the eclectic outlet might be close to water, which can be a deadly mix. You should be able to press the test/reset button on each individual outlet. When the GFCI won’t reset, that’s when you’ll want to call us at Accurate! Our electricians have the skills to assess all types of electrical systems and their components, are well-versed and seasoned in all electrical options which means no matter if there is a need for rewiring services, repair services, installations, or general home electrical repairs, we can safely help you.
Outside of the bathroom, kitchen and laundry room, all electrical outlets in your home can be checked with a simple tool called a cube or block tester. Once you have this tester tool, plug it into an outlet and see the display lights which indicate the most common outlet wiring issues. Every DIY and homeowner toolbox is not complete without these tools and it should be used at least once a year on all outlets to ensure your home’s electrical safety.
Another tool worth adding to the toolkit is a volt meter which will measure the voltage of each outlet. This helps you perform a voltage test when electronic devices are behaving irregularly or at least during an annual electrical safety check throughout the house. If the voltage power at an outlet reads outside of a normal 120 volt range of 110 – 130 volts you will know it’s time to call the experts at Accurate. We provide the best quality work with safety as a top priority no matter how big or small the repair on your home.
If there are young children at your home you are strongly encouraged to install tamper-resistant outlets at any that are reachable by children to help prevent injury if a foreign object is inserted in the outlet by a curious child. Not sure if you already have these tamper resistant outlets? When you look at the outlet and see a barrier behind the receptacle it is tamper resistant. If, on the other hand, you see a dark space behind the receptacle openings then it’s not tamper resistant and you should upgrade to a newer tamper resistant outlet.
It’s possible that the electrical wiring of your home may not withstand consistent use with televisions, computers, charging smart phones and other updated appliances so many of us have become accustomed to. We know not all systems can support this and our electrical contractors at Accurate are prepared to conduct necessary wiring repairs, wiring updates and replacements to any part of your electrical system so you can live comfortably with these modern day conveniences.
The electrical safety checks mentioned above can be done by a novice. However if any of it makes you nervous, if you have any issues performing these checks or have questions related to electrical work, there is no harm in letting the experts do it and hire one of our licensed electrical contractors at Accurate Electric Heating Plumbing & Air. We’d love to be your trusted source for electrical work here in Orange County.
