There’s been a lot of questions about Federal Pacific Electric Panels.  The Dallas Morning News ran an article on the potential of fire that these panels possess.  As an Electrical Contractor with 27 years experience, I can tell you first hand that these electrical panels are unpredictable and unsafe.  We had a customer who was renting a house and was having an electrical problem. We told her it was due to her electrical panel.  This Federal Pacific Panel was overheating and beginning to melt.  We informed her that she needed to change it.  She got back in touch with us Sunday night to schedule for Monday morning to have the panel replaced.  We told her we would be there at 9am and she said she had to drop her kids off at school and would prefer a 9:30am appointment.  When we showed up at 9:30, she showed up at the same time and we were both greeted by the Fire Department trying to put out the fire in her home due to the electrical panel.

Failure of these panels is not an “if,” but “when.”  A quick evaluation by a licensed and knowledgeable electrician can make a big difference.  Don’t gamble on your security, call and get the free evaluation today!

ElectricMan Inc. is one of Dallas’ most trusted electricians. Nick Schaeffer, Mr. ElectricMan himself, has quite the resume for a master electrician. He started the company by himself in 2004 and hasn’t looked back since! For more information about Electricman’s list of electrical repair services, please visit www.ElectricManInc.com

Now that the weather is warming up, you'll have more time to get those household jobs you've likely been putting off done. There'll likely be lots of trips to the hardware store, power tools, shouts of victory and the occasional groan of defeat along the way as you undergo a renovation. Before you launch into your summer projects here are a few tips to make sure you have a productive home improvement season.

Do your homework

Research your project before you start by finding stories and reading product reviews. Doing your due diligence on a job before you even pull out a tape measure will help to prepare yourself mentally.

Stick to the plan

Before you start knocking down, peeling off, unscrewing or disconnecting, make sure you have a clear plan of what you want to do and how you want to achieve it. The last thing you want is to turn a two hour job into two day patch-up.

Measure twice, cut once

Not being meticulous about your measurements often leads to "an inch off here" or "an inch to much there," which is all you need to ruin a great day's work.  Making sure you get the right size pipes, joints and parts the first time you go will save you multiple trips to the hardware store.

Get the right tool

Much like the previous point, using the wrong tool can lead to you undoing your hard work. We've all been tempted to jury rig something that's "close enough" to what we want, but that sometimes turns out to be not just unwise but also unsafe.

Have a backup plan

From your cell phone to your washing machine, you’ll find all kinds electronics in your home.  Entertainment, lighting, comfort, and even cleaning can be electrically powered.  Most people know that it’s a good idea to disconnect electronics during an electrical outage or lightning storm.  This is due to possible electrical surges.  Electrical surges are sudden increases in current that can damage connections and electrical components throughout your home.  Most devices have some protections, but strong surges can overpower these protectors, leaving you with a very expensive paperweight after the surge is through.  Fortunately, surge protectors exist to stop this from happening.

A sudden increase in current occurs when more power is being delivered to the same system.  If a lightning storm strikes a transformer or relay that’s connected to the same grid you’re on, excess power is diverted to your home and creates an increase in current.  This sudden surge is what damages components.  But, it isn’t just limited to sudden electrical discharges either.  When power is applied to a system, it has substantial initial current.  This is known as inrush current and is the reason that you’re advised to disconnect electronics whenever there’s an outage.

Once power is restored to a system, either because you turn on a switch or the power grid is reconnected, initial current surges into the system.  Disconnecting devices helps to decrease that inrush current.  The electrical panel in your home is also designed to handle inrush current, which is why your breaker system doesn’t automatically trip whenever power is restored.  On a smaller scale, any sudden call for extra power pushes a small surge into the system.  When you power up an electric vacuum cleaner or portable space heater, there’s a small surge.  The more powerful the device, the larger the surge.  These are the types of surges that common surge protectors guard against.  For lightning strikes you’ll need something better.

While the majority of surges are protected against by those tiny power strips, because most surges originate inside your home, they aren’t strong enough to protect against the dangerous surges that will irreparably damage your in-home electronics.  Most homewoners prefer the power strip surge protectors because they’re inexpensive.  But, while a whole-home surge protector can cost over $200 to add on to your home, they don’t suffer from many of the drawbacks found in the tiny in-home protectors.

Whole-home surge protectors guard your entire home from outside surges.  They’re installed near and wired to the electrical service panel for your home.  Any power surge that travels to your home is immediately shunted away, preventing disaster from ever reaching your home.  You’ll find that whole-home surge protectors are also not as fragile as standard home surge protectors.  They’ll last for years and are less likely to be burnt out by a single surge.  A quality surge protector is capable of shunting tens of thousands of amps without burning out.

If you want the best in electrical protective devices, a whole-home surge protector is the right choice.  Compared to most safety installations, they’re relatively inexpensive and you only need to install one device to protect your home for years.  It’s still a good idea to use power strips to protect in-home devices from smaller surges, but you need a quality surge device to protect against lightning storms or substation surges.

For the best in quality electrical repair work and installations, contact the professionals at Custom Electric!  Be sure to check back here each week for helpful advice, news, and guides or follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Categories: Business, commercial electrical, Residential« 3 Reasons You Should Hire a Professional Electrician  |  Mood Lighting for Romance »

Take a few minutes to look for and correct electrical hazards in your home. It does not take too long to check the insulation on a table lamp cord, check for the correct wattage light bulbs and install a GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter). Take the time. It will prevent an electrical safety hazard and save you and your loved ones lives.

Unsafe conditions such as overloaded circuits and damaged insulation as well as the misuse of extension cords and electrical devices create fire hazards and may result in serious electrical injury.

Studies of residential electrical fires show that the majority of serious fires could have easily been avoided. The conditions that caused the fires probably would have been detected by an electrical inspection. These problems were not detected or corrected because no inspections had been made for several years. In a number of cases homes ranging from 30 to 100 years old had not been inspected since they were built. A safety inspection should be performed by a qualified licensed electrician.

One good tip to determine when your electrical system was last inspected is to examine the door and cover of your electrical panel. The panel should contain a label or tag with a date, a signature, or initials on it. If there is more than one date, the most recent one should be the date of the last inspection. DO NOT remove the service-panel cover. This is a job for a qualified electrician. If the date is older than ten years, its time for a inspection and correction of any problems that show.

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