Top Electrical Safety Tips for The Holidays

As the holiday season approaches, the need to deck your home in tinsel and lights may soon be upon you. While keeping the holiday cheer and spirit alive is important, it’s more festive if you don’t compromise your electrical safety in the process. You don’t want to spend the upcoming holidays dealing with your insurance company or contractors due to various electrical problems that could have easily been avoided.

A Few Tips To Remember To Keep Your Home Bright

• You need to check all of your electrical decorations, lights and extension cords, to ensure that nothing is damaged. Do not use damaged electrical decorations or damaged extension cords – it could cause an electrical malfunction and your electrical panel may trip or even worse cause a fire.
• Nothing is more amazing that seeing beautifully lit houses in the evening, but as great as it is to leave your lights on, it is important that you switch everything off when you go to bed or if you’re not home. Disappointing spectators is a safer option than losing your home to an accidental electrical fire.
• Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCIs) are there for a reason, all your outdoor electrical decorations and lights should be plugged into circuits protected by GFCIs. This will ensure you or a loved one, are a less likely to experience an electrical shock from any faulty wiring.
• Your household electrical panels are only able to provide enough electrical current for their intended household purpose, such as plugging in your phone charger or a lamp. Your appliances which require more power connect to a panel that can safely handle the necessary current to operate the appliances such as your washing machine. Do not overload your electrical outlets with multiple plugs, extension cords and adapters. It is not safe to utilize the same electrical panel to power everything by plugging in multiple power strips into one another. This can overheat and it could cause a fire.
• While decking your home in boughs of light may be visually stunning, don’t connect more than 3 light strings together. While it may be a little more work to continuously connect sets of 3 instead of longer sets, a little more work means a lot more safety.
• Don’t skimp on your electrical decoration costs, purchase them from reputable retailers and ensure that they meet local electrical standards. This will ensure that the product has been tested and is safe to use in your home.
• Make sure that your outdoor festive lighting is waterproof and the sockets are protected from any unfavorable weather conditions or protected from accidental water spillage.

At Art Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Electric, our residential electrical services are second to none. If you want to make sure that your home’s wiring is in perfect working order for the upcoming festive season, it’s important to have a licensed technician do an electrical safety inspection on your home. Don’t fret if you do have any issues – We Can Fix It!