Annual Electrical Safety Inspections

How often should I get an electrical safety inspection? We suggest annually due to the everyday changing technology as well as additions to your homes and families. Now a days, stresses to your electrical system occur more often then in the older days when appliances and devices didn’t require as much amperage. An annual check of what we call a 10-Point electrical inspection includes the following,

• Checking all GFCI receptacles for proper sensitivity and mechanical function.
• Checking all smoke detectors for proper function and circuitry.
  
• Insure panel is grounded.
  
• Checking and tightening all ground terminals.
  
• Checking and tightening all neutral terminals.
  
• Checking and tighten main service wire termination.
  
• Checking all wires for proper sizing at breakers.
  
• Checking and tighten all line terminals.
  
• Checking for surge protection at panel.
  
• Testing all outlets for proper grounding and proper polarity.

These parts of your electrical system are critical for the maintenance and safety of your electric system and should not go neglected.


Smoke Detectors

We all know that proper installation and maintenance of smoke detectors can save your property and your life. The new National Electrical Code for 2005 (NEC 2005) requires that homes have interconnected smoke detectors with battery backup. What this means is should there be a fire in one part of your property say the basement, the smoke detectors down there will detect it and go off, but it will also send notification to the other detectors in the property causing them to go off.  This way if you are in another level of the property you hear the detector. This can be essential, especially at night; if you are sleeping do you really think you will hear a detector go off in the basement of your home?  We can not stress enough how important interconnected battery back up smoke detectors are in a home and/or business. We are here for your safety first and foremost, if you believe you have outdated or un-maintenance smoke detectors please call us so we can check them for you, it could save your house and more importantly your life.

Ground Fault Protected Outlets (GFI)

The National Electrical Code (NEC) requires that all 120 volt, 15 amp or 20amp kitchen, bathroom, wet bar, laundry room and exterior outlets have ground fault interrupting protection. “Ground fault protection is the de-energizing of a circuit or portion thereof within an established time period when a fault between a current carry conductor and ground occurs”. A GFI will de-energize with 4-6 milliamps of current to ground which is quicker than any ordinary breaker. Sounds like a different language right? However, do you see a common trend in the places where these types of outlets are required? You guessed it, anywhere where water has potential to mix with electricity. We all know electricity and water have never been good friends, so this is no shock (no pun intended). GFI outlets can save you from getting shocked in the event you are around when electricity and water finally decide to clash. The Good news is that your current non-GFI outlets can be easily converted to GFI outlets.

Arc Fault (AFCI)

An arc fault is an unintentional electrical discharge, this can come from many different sources such as worn electrical insulation or damaged wire, misapplied or damaged appliance cords and equipment, loose electrical connections, receptacle leakage, neutral leads pinched to grounded metal box, wet connections or conduit, shorted wires, wires or cords in contact with vibrating metal, overheated or stressed electrical cords and wires, or driving a nail into a wall and having it inadvertently hit a wire. The possibility of arcing grows as a home ages since age and time will contribute to the possibility of these conditions occurring. Unfortunately there is little you can do to prevent arc faults other than pay close attention to the condition of cords. There are however devices that can be purchased that is called an Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter (AFCI), and it electronically detects and stops the flow of electricity should n arc fault occur.  Further by tripping on a specific circuit an arc fault helps you identify the source of the problem. As of January 2002, the NEC now requires all new bedroom circuits have arc fault interrupters. Contact a qualified electrician to evaluate your situation and provide you a quote for installing AFCI’s for you.

WARNING: FEDERAL PACIFIC AND WADSWORTH PANELS AND PUSH-A-MATICS

If you have a Federal Pacific, Wadsworth or Push-A-Matic style panel, you need to replace it. Over the years it has been concluded that these panels are fire hazards. They have been the source of many fires and potentially dangerous situations. What happens in a normal panel is when there is a problem in the system the breaker trips, causing the power to be cut off to the source of the problem. (See Basic Electrical System) In a Federal Pacific, Wadsworth or Push-A-Matic style panel, the circuits malfunction, allowing the breakers to continue to provide electricity to the problem, in return causing potential danger for fire.  Houses built in the late seventies, early eighties are commonly plagued with this hazard, as this is when most of the Federal Pacific, Wadsworth and Push-A-Matic style panels where installed. To check if you have one of these panels simply look on your panel, you should see a manufacturer name and style on there. If you have one of these panels, call us today to come out and give you an estimate for replacing it, we can not stress enough how important this is.

To find out more information on these types of panels please visits some additional websites that have information on these types of panels. http://www.inspect-ny.com/fpe/fpepanel.htm

Whole House Surge Protectors

The service life of any piece of electronically controlled or powered equipment is in most part due to the quality of electrical service it receives power from. With today’s electronics becoming more and more expensive no one can get away from the need of a good quality surge protection device. With the proper surge protection you can increase your electronics life by over 30%. 

Everyday short duration voltage surges can come into your home and business and can potentially attack your electronics. These small surges are not strong enough to completely destroy your electronics; they may just cause a flicker on your computer screen. However, these surges do cause wear and tear on your electronics, thus decreasing the life of the electronic.  Aside from small surges there is potential for large surges which will cause major damage, meaning destruction of your equipment.

There are three primary causes of surges, Mother Nature, the local electric company or others on the same utility circuit and the user.  Mother natures is responsible for the most dangerous and feared surges which are caused by lighting. Just because lighting does not directly hit your house doesn’t mean you can’t have a surge. Lighting can travel up to ½ mile and can indirectly spike surges in anything in its way.  But rest assured, only 2% of surges come from lighting. The local electric company or those companies on the same utility circuit can also cause surges in your home or business. When local power companies shift grids, open neutral events and perform high-voltage cross overs, this can cause large surges in the power lines. Even the power company’s daily events like switching capacitors can be responsible for the small type for surges that cause wear and tear. In addition to the power company, others on the same utility circuit as you can cause surges in your home and business, for instance, large facilities such as schools and hospitals cause power surges daily as they go through their on-off running cycles. Again these surges are the small wear and tear kind, but nevertheless overtime will decrease your electronics life. Finally there is the user; in fact 65%-85% of surges are generated within the home or facility itself. These are also the wear and tear kind of surges but contribute to most of the degradation of equipment.

With a surge protection device on your panel you can protect your electronics and assets from being permanently destructed and increase the length of service they will provide you. A surge protector’s job is to sit and wait for these surges to occur, when it detects them the device passes them through to the ground, keeping them away from your electronics. Investing $175 to put in a surge protector could potentially save you thousands in the costs of replacing your electronics. The average plasma TV today costs about $1500, hmmm $175 or $1500? This does not even take into consideration that new laptop or home computer system, that beautiful sounding surround sound and of course the new TiVo and DVD player.  So do yourself and your wallet a favor and get surge protection installed today!