Most of us don’t understand electricity at all. It’s just something that comes out from the socket, powers our computers, appliances, and phones, and functions perfectly. It’s just like the inner mechanics of a car. You don’t think about it until it breaks down.
Well, if you’re someone who doesn’t know that much about electricity, you might be surprised by how many dangers lie. Even if your home was built a couple of years ago, there’s still a chance that you might be using certain sockets more than others, and that can put a strain on the entire installation. Click on this link for more info.
Households are using more electricity every year. That’s because technology is advancing at a rapid rate, and the current suppliers are trying to keep up. This means that electrician’s skills will be valued more in the future. But for now, here are some cases when you might want to call them.
Flickering lights
We’ve all had the problem of flickering light. It’s quite a nuisance. It might be an incandescent bulb that’s about to burn out, and you go out and buy a new one. You replace it, and after a few days, it breaks down too.
This means that the problem isn’t in the bulbs, but rather in the overworking of your power lines. This is one case where a professional’s help would be greatly appreciated. Another case is when you’re watching TV with your family, and you turn on the air conditioning unit.
If the light in the living room dims down as soon as you turn on the AC, it’s the same problem as we mentioned above. Bigger appliances such as fridges, washing machines, air conditioners, ovens, and dishwashers use a lot of power.
This means that they need to be separated from each other or put all together on the mainline. Installing a 20 Amper line will solve the problem, but you can’t do that on your own.
Old cables
If your home was built in the 80s, then you need to change all the wires in the house. You might have seen a few bits of black rubber in the sockets or switches in the last couple of years. That’s a surefire sign that your wires have served their purpose, and they need to be replaced by new ones.
Some of those old houses had wires wrapped in cloth as insulation. Even though that’s a special kind of cloth, after a few years, those insulating properties wither away. That means that the fabric becomes a fire hazard. Additionally, some homes have aluminum wires. Now, we can’t say which one of those is worse, because they’re both extremely dangerous.
Time wears them down
Some things get better as time goes by. Apart from alcohol, quite a few things become better as they age. Wires aren’t an exception. Electrical systems are working all the time. The wires are made of copper, and minuscule electrons pass through them all of the time.
If you have a home that’s more than two decades old and you haven’t called an electrician to check whether everything is okay, then you need to do it immediately. Some of the wires could rust and blacken. That puts the entire house at risk.
It’s even worse if you live in an apartment because many other people are using the same mainlines. The reason why many people don’t call electricians Gold Coast apart from when there’s an obvious problem is that we can’t see the wires. They’re embedded into the walls, and it’s quite different from when a pipe bursts.
If a pipe starts to leak, you can notice some wet spots on the wall or at least some dampness. When an electrical wire snaps, you won’t know whether an area is charged or not. Plus, if there’s a burst pipe next to a wire, that’s even worse. We all know that electricity and water don’t mix together. That’s because water is a great conductor, meaning it allows the current to pass through the medium.
If you have a foot in a puddle, and there is a cable in the water, you’re going to get electrocuted, even if you’re a few feet away from the live voltage. The same thing doesn’t happen if the medium is the ground or air. The earth is the best insulator, and that’s why electricians try to ground the electricity.
This is especially important in bathrooms and kitchens since you can touch a switch with wet hands. That’s why there are special outlets and switches that don’t allow the current to go past a certain point.
This means that you can touch the sockets with your bare wet hands, and nothing will happen to you. That doesn’t mean that you should do it. These kinds of switches and sockets need to be installed near sinks, water heaters and drains.
System interrupts
If you connect your fridge, washing machine, dishwasher, and air conditioning unit to the same power cord, one of those things is going to catch on fire. That’s just like waiting for a disaster to happen. A lot of people don’t know that the fuses that blow and the tripping of their electrical circuit breakers are because of simple mistakes.
They connect massive power-consuming appliances on a single source, and then the entire system shuts down. When you plug them into different parts of the house, you reduce the chances of a short-circuit from happening.
If you leave things as they are, the power cord might start to catch on fire while you’re sleeping, and by the time you wake up, the problem is going to be too big to handle. Before something like that happens, it’s best to call a professional on the scene to see how everything looks like. They have all the training and equipment to see how your systems measure up to modern standards. If everything is okay, you’ll sleep better at night. If it isn’t, you’ll know that you have to fix it.
