It may be out of sight, but it should never be out of mind—your electrical system, that is. The electrical components of your home are a critical part of your daily life. Without electricity, you wouldn’t be able to turn on your air conditioner, conveniently wash your clothes, or even keep your refrigerated food cold. It’s a necessity no matter where you live and what day of the year it is. Therefore, electrical maintenance should be a priority for your family.
Electrical maintenance is a critical part of home safety. Homes are of course designed to be safe, of course. But over the years, electrical wiring can degrade or become damaged. Your electrical panel can get overloaded. Power surges can start damaging the various appliances and pieces of electrical equipment throughout your living space.
Electrical Repair Signs to be Aware Of
Maintenance lets our technicians look at all of this very closely, inspecting your wiring and ensuring that your system isn’t overloaded. We’ll determine what, if any, changes need to be made to prevent an emergency from occurring. This may include partial or whole-house rewiring, an electrical panel upgrade, or replacing outdated outlets and fixtures.
What about between maintenance appointments, however? Are there any signs you can watch out for that something is amiss with your home’s wiring? Certainly! Read on.
Flickering Lights
This is almost always caused by a short circuit in your electrical system. If it’s just one lamp that it’s happening with, it might be that you need to replace that one fixture and nothing else. If, however, it’s impacting an entire section of your home, then you have a bigger problem on your hands.
Hot Spots on Walls or Outlets
Have you ever put your hand on a light switch, outlet, or random spot on the wall and noticed it was warm? Oftentimes, this is a sign that electrical current is flowing in a direction that it shouldn’t. When this happens, energy is thrown off as heat, so this is the hot spot you’re feeling.
Hot spots can be the sign of a very serious breach in your electrical system that could lead to a fire hazard, so it’s definitely not a sign you want to ignore. Should you notice this in your own home, please be sure to contact a professional plumber right away.
Frequent Circuit Breaker Tripping
The circuit breaker box, or electrical panel, is designed to protect your home from power surges. When a portion of your home’s electrical system suddenly starts carrying voltage beyond safety limits, the circuit breaker assigned to that section will trip (turn off) and that part of your electrical system will be shut down until the problem is fixed.
In many cases, a circuit breaker will trip because the circuit was overloaded. The fix might be as simple as readjusting where you have some of your appliances or electrical fixtures plugged in to better balance the distribution of electrical power. However, if the same circuit breakers keep tripping, then you may have a bigger issue (such as an overloaded electrical system overall) and could require an electrical panel upgrade.
Contact Covenant Heating and Cooling for all things HVAC and electrical in Nashville, TN! We are “Dedicated to the Promise of Serving You.”