Access to electricity is ubiquitous in today’s society – we use it for our appliances, to charge our devices, and to light and cool our homes. It is easy to forget just how powerful and dangerous electricity is when it’s so common, but for your safety and the safety of your home, it should always be taken seriously. If you find yourself with a needed electrical repair, these situations represent times when it is best to involve an electrician.
Electrical Repairs to Do at Home
The vast majority of electrical issues and repairs require you to involve an electrician. However, small repairs that you can safely do yourself include:
- Changing light bulbs: So long as you’ve allowed the burned bulb to cool, you can safely replace the light bulbs in your fixtures.
- Tightening loose outlet covers: A loose cover can allow the outlet itself to become loose, which stretches and damages the wires over time. Use a screwdriver to tighten the outlet and cover to prevent it from wiggling.
- Identify an electrical short: If you turn on an appliance and it immediately loses power, check its breaker on your electrical panel. If the breaker has been tripped, there is an electrical short that needs to be addressed by an electrician.
In general, it’s best to involve a licensed electrician in any electrical project–electric shock can cause serious injury or death, and even small mistakes can lead to enormous repercussions if they further damage your wiring or cause a fire. An electrical professional should always be contracted if you are:
- Changing or upgrading your home’s detectors: While some smoke and carbon monoxide detectors do not have wires, most still do. They are hooked into your home’s electrical system so that they have a constant power supply, and will not die like battery-powered models do. Many detector systems are connected so that when one is tripped, all of the alarms will sound, alerting your entire home to the presence of smoke.
- Repairing or upgrading your electrical panel: All of the electricity in your home is routed through an electrical panel, so it makes sense that only licensed electricians should touch it.
- Repairing plugs and outlets: While the wiring may appear simple for your outlets, altering the wiring needs to be done properly. If not rewired correctly, it could cause the wires to overheat or melt, and can damage appliances plugged into the outlet.
- Issues with your automatic garage door: Garage doors are extremely heavy and dangerous if not properly controlled. Call your electrician if you are experiencing issues with your garage remote or with the lifting mechanism.
- Replacing or installing exterior fixtures: Everyone knows that water and electricity do not play nicely together. If you intend to do any sort of exterior electrical work that will be exposed to the elements such as landscape lighting, pool lighting and heating, or floodlight repair, you need to involve a professional.
- During electrical emergencies: If you find that a breaker does not reset, outlets have stopped functioning, or if any aspect of your electrical system is hot to the touch, immediately involve an electrician to quickly diagnose and fix the issue. In situations like these, it’s incredibly important to safely turn off power and repair it to prevent an electrical fire or shock.If you need to hire a local Sarasota electrician, call Promise Electric. Our master electricians are pros in all matters concerning residential and commercial electrical projects.
