No matter how you choose to celebrate, there’s a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks! But while fun and friends are great, and we are really looking forward to some holiday eats, our experts would like to take a moment to point out some critically important details regarding the holidays. Namely, electrical safety.

At Hoffman Electrical, the safety of our patrons in Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida is of the utmost importance. And while the holidays are pretty awesome, they also open up some opportunities for unique dangers that you’d do best to avoid. Follow along to learn our quick tips for a safe and happy holiday season!

The fuse box is a metal box installed somewhere on the inside or outside of the home. It is installed by an electrician and has a hinged cover to keep the fuses protected. Most homes built before 1960 will have a fuse box, those built after have a circuit breaker box.

This box controls the electrical flow to your home. In the event of an overload, the fuse attached to that circuit will blow. This will cut power to every device on that circuit in the house. Most boxes have a main switch that will control power to the entire house.

There are three important things that you need to know about your box. You need to know where it is, what type of fuses your box uses, and if your main switch works properly. You should test your main switch at least three times annually to make sure it works correctly.

The inside of your box has several threaded spaces that resemble light sockets. These are called Edison sockets, and your fuses screw into them. Some fuses have an adapter called a rejection base snapped inside of them. The rejection base will only allow an S type fuses to be placed in that spot, whereas the larger T type fuses are screwed into the non-adapted sockets.

The most common fuses in homes nowadays are fuse types SL and TL. The SL fuse is a fuse with a rejection base already installed. The TL type fuse is a fuse with a regular Edison base. These work well for home use because they are designed to handle momentary power overloads caused by turning on household appliances.

When you blow a fuse, you need to unplug everything connected to that circuit. Go to the box and place a dry rubber mat on the floor to stand on to create insulation for your body. Put on a pair of thick leather gloves to avoid possible electrocution, open the hinged door and turn off the main switch for the house.

Using a flashlight, examine the top of each fuse. The top is made of glass. A blown fuse will either have the metal wire broken in pieces inside the glass, or glass that appears cloudy so you can’t see in. Remove this fuse, being careful not to touch the metal parts with your bare hands. Replace this with a fuse of matching amps. Turn the main power switch back on.

If you don’t want to mess with fuses, you can install mini breakers into the box. These turn each fuse into its own circuit breaker with a button on top. When a fuse blows, push the button to reset it. Your other option is to have an electrician replace your box with a modern circuit breaker.

Tripped circuit breaker: many of us have experienced them at some point in our homes, yet instead of asking ourselves, “Why Do Breakers Trip?”, we reset the breaker without much thought. Before flipping the switch back over to the “ON” position, however, it’s important to understand why the breaker tripped in the first place, and what can be done to keep it from happening again.

As a Top Dallas Electrician, ElectricMan Inc. understands the danger of ignoring the warning signs of a tripped circuit breaker. But first, you need to know what a breaker does and how it works.

The Job of the Circuit Breaker

Simply put, a home or business circuit breaker is a safety device that monitors the amount of electrical current going through the electrical wires in your home and shuts off the circuit if too much electricity is being pulled through it, or if there is any disturbance in the current that could result in a fire.

Whereas a fuse performs the same task but can only be used once, a circuit breaker can perform over and over with the use of a switch that trips to indicate when it has effectively cut off current to a particular area.

What Makes a Breaker Trip?

So, Why Do Breakers Trip and what kind of things could cause a circuit breaker to trip? Some of the most common causes of a tripped breaker include:

For example, in some homes, running a microwave, a toaster oven and a refrigerator all on the same circuit may cause your wires to overheat, tripping the breaker. In this instance, making the load a little lighter, or splitting the circuit, may do the trick in keeping it from tripping the breaker.

Ignoring a Tripped Breaker is Not a Good Idea

Because of the many reasons why your circuit breaker could be tripping, and because of the purpose of the circuit breaker, you should never take a tripped breaker lightly. It’s important to understand that the circuit breaker is a safety device; simply switching the circuit back on without investigating the culprit can become costly in the long run and, in many cases, extremely dangerous.

If your breaker trips consistently, chances are there is a potentially dangerous electrical issue that needs to be looked at. ElectricMan Inc. is a Top Dallas Electrician with over 27 years of residential and commercial experience in the electrical field. Call ElectricMan Inc. at 972-792-7270 to make sure that your home is safe and free from the risk of a short or a fire.

Holiday lighting products have evolved into a much safer product over the years.  With the development of properly sized wires and fuses and LED lighting to reduce the consumption load and the heat the lamps produce, holiday lighting has never been more safe.  In the past people would take the old C style lamps and hook one string of lights into the other.  Often overloading one the strings or the weakest link.  This overload would often melt wires, create sparks, and in some cases even cause a fire.  The manufactures and improved safety standards and testing, help reduce to the chance of an overload by installing a fuse at the starter end or male end of the light string.  This fuse would blow or trip when the load became greater than the fuse capacity, which would then project the wire from the overload.  It is always recommended to install lights that are interconnected (one light string plugged into the other) to manufacture specifications as listed by there instructions.

LED or light emitting diodes have not only made holiday lighting more efficient but even safer.  The old style C7 and C9 lamps could reach temperatures of up to 350 degrees.  The hot lamp if rested against wood or dry Christmas tree, has the potential to ignite the material from the heat the lamp produces and cause a fire.  With LED’s to replace the old style incandescent lamps the chance of fire from heat is almost non existing.  However, it is still possible to cause a fire from electrical spark or short.  These sparks or shorts produce heat much greater and can easily ignite flammable material.  Sparks or shorts are often caused by frayed or damaged insulation on the electrical wires and also loose connections.  It is important to inspect your holiday lighting for damaged or loose components and replace when needed.  Be sure not to use any damaged equipment and immediately discard them to eliminate the chance of future use.

A common mistake made people make with holiday lighting is to plug to many holiday lights into each other.  UL listed holiday lighting and cord splitters are tested to specific tolerances and should only be installed to manufactures specifications.  The easiest location to find the manufactures is specifications is to look at the tag on the cord most commonly found near the male end of the cord or light string.

If enough standard wall sockets are not present and you must plug in multiple cords, it is highly recommended to install a plug switch with a built in overload device to reduce the risk of overload.  The built in overload should not be mistaken for a surge protection device.  A surge protector reduces or eliminates the excess voltage going to the device plugged into itself.  Where an overload device will shut off power at the point of installation if to much power is being drawn through it.

On many new homes we will install plug ins located in the soffit or eve to reduce or eliminate drop cords for holiday lighting.  These soffit plugs are installed on a special heavier 20 amp circuit and often include a convenience switch located inside the home to shut the lights on / off as needed.  The special circuit makes sure your holiday lighting is not installed on regular interior circuits so the chance of variable loads and overloads are dramatically reduced.

Permanent holiday lighting can be installed by a licensed electrician.  The most common type of permanent holiday lighting is LED strip lighting.  These are can be installed on the under side of eves or soffits for a permanent installation.  Depending on the type of LED holiday lighting you choose you may even have the option to change the colors of the lights with a push of a button.  This allows the holiday lighting to be used for many occasions throughout the year.  You can call today or schedule online to have a lighting specialist come to your home or business and provide you with a written no obligation quote.