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| House Safety House Safety Are There Electrical Dangers in Your Home?Did you know that electrical panels 20 years old or older are not built to handle today’s heavy electrical demand? Are you aware that the average annual loss due to electrical fires exceeds $700 million? The wear and tear on your home’s electrical infrastructure is invisible. Unlike tread wear on tires or dulling of windshield wipers, a home electrical system wears from the inside. With little or no warning, an electrical system can overload with one terrifying result ...FIRE- MIKE Electric 774-444-3878
- Never run an extension cord under a rug.
- Do not consider extension cords part of your home's electrical system—use them only for temporary situations.
- A frayed or cracked cord could cause a shock or fire. Replace old and damaged extension cords.
- Make sure the cords you buy are approved by an independent testing laboratory.
- Never overload an extension cord; that could cause a fire. Check the rating labels on the cords and the appliance. If necessary, upgrade to a higher-rated cord.
Receptacle Safety
- Receptacles are inexpensive. Replace any that are broken, no longer hold a plug securely, feel hot to the touch, or spark or make noise when inserting or removing a plug.
- Replace broken faceplates so you don't accidentally touch a plug to a live portion of the receptacle.
- Never alter a polarized plug to make it fit into an old unpolarized receptacle.
- If you must use a grounding adapter, first verify that the receptacle is grounded (use a neon tester, the simple directions are on the package), then be sure to secure the tab on the adapter under the coverplate screw.
- Do not use a multi-plug adapter for extended periods of time. If you need more receptacles, add a new receptacle (and circuit, if necessary).
- When replacing a receptacle, make sure the new one is properly rated—never install a 20-amp receptacle on a 15-amp circuit.
- Never install a three-slot receptacle where there is no ground available, unless it is a GFCI receptacle. While it would be better to run a ground wire and install a properly grounded receptacle if there is a need for one, the next best thing is to install a GFCI. While it won't be grounded, it will provide some degree of shock protection.
- Use lockout receptacles or childproof plugs if young children will be present
- What is an AFCI?
The AFCI is an arc fault circuit interrupter breaker. These have to be installed in bedrooms that have twenty amp, fifteen amp, single phase and 125-volt outlets. This was required starting back in 2002 by the NEC. You may see more rooms in a home needing these outlets, but for now, it is just required for bedrooms. If there is a slight arc in the outlet, the AFCI breaker will shut down the outlet in a split second preventing potential fires and/ or death. Other outlets do not shut down when there is a slight arc, which can cause fires.
The AFCI works differently than the GFCI. The GFCI protects you from electrical shock and the AFCI protects you from fire caused by arcing. You can look forward to a combination of AFCI and GFCI protection in one outlet in the near future. This means the outlet will protect against arcing and possible fire as well as electrical shock. This will more than likely be used in bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens. The causes of an arc fault could be one of many things.
It could be caused because of a frayed wire, broken wires, or loose wire connections. It can also be caused from damaged plugs or cords, worn insulation around the wire, and furniture pressed tightly against the electrical plug. If any of these conditions exist, you could see arching from the outlet if you did not have the AFCI outlet.
If the arching goes for long periods of time, the wires can reach high temperatures and easily start a fire. The temperatures get so hot that they can cause insulation or other materials to start on fire. You need to properly protect your home and these AFCI outlets are now mandatory in bedrooms throughout the United States.
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