According to recent reports from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), home sales have risen markedly over the past few months. The latest figures from January 2013 showed the number of closings on new properties have jumped markedly from the year prior. As a result, home builders have amped up construction of new properties as the existing housing stock  shrinks amid a burst in home sales.

Around this time of year, the market gets increasingly robust as people seem to be more optimistic with the warmer weather approaching and winter finally drawing to a close. If analysts from the NAR are correct, this means an even larger uptick of new home construction is bound to come about in response to buyer interest.

When you purchase a newly constructed property, you may assume that the house is free of plumbing or electrical problems as all of the appliances, wiring and pipes have been recently installed. However, even new homes are far from perfect, as shoddy construction could be underlying otherwise pristine-looking walls and floors.

Are you constantly dealing with tripped circuits? What about blown fuses? If you’re experiencing any of these problems as you go about your daily routine, it may be time to consider installing dedicated circuitry in your home. Certain appliances in your home draw more power than others. Without a dedicated circuit, you might experience constant electrical problems. A dedicated circuit ensures enough power is provided to the major electrical appliances, reducing tripped circuits in your Tampa area home!

Among the more obvious pieces of electrical safety advice you may have encountered is to never saw the third prong off of an electrical plug in order to fit it into a two-prong outlet. But just because we can recognize that as a self-evidently bad idea doesn’t mean everyone knows why it’s dangerous.

Two-prong outlets have only two wires: a hot wire and a neutral wire. But a three-prong outlet also has a ground wire, which is a safe place for unexpected bursts of current to go when they occur. Without that connection between the ground wire and the plug, wild current can go anywhere: into your electrical device, where sensitive components can be destroyed, or worse, into your body. Shock and electrocution are more likely to occur when no ground wire is present.

Moving On Up

Three-prong outlets didn’t become standard in North American homes until the late 1960s, so while modern homes should be in good shape, there are plenty of homes out there with old two-prong outlets.

As a quick fix, you might be tempted to use adapters that convert two-prong outlets to fit three-prong plugs. You should resist the urge to use these so-called “cheater plugs”, however -- the ground wire is there for safety, and simply bypassing it creates a potentially serious hazard.

Instead, you should seriously consider upgrading the outlet if you need to regularly use three-prong plugs in that area. If you live in an older home where most of the outlets are two-prong, this is an upgrade you’ll need to do sooner or later.

When it comes to upgrading two-prong outlets, there are two basic options. The best choice is to have ground wires installed so that the outlets are fully up to the current standard. Unfortunately, this can involve several hours of electrical service and may require some cutting into walls, depending on how many outlets are being upgraded and how the home is configured. It may be a big undertaking, but it’s a quality investment in your home and safety.

A cheaper alternative is to upgrade to a ground fault circuit interrupter outlet, or GFCI. These outlets are capable of shutting themselves off if an electrical shock risk is present, but they won’t protect sensitive electronics from surge damage. The trade-off is that there’s no need to run a ground wire.

Out With the Old, In With the Old?

If you don’t like either of these options but you’re having trouble with a two-prong outlet, it’s technically not a violation of code to replace the outlet with another two-prong version. Just keep in mind that this arrangement leaves both people and electronics vulnerable, so use these outlets with care and consider making a plan to upgrade later.

Ready to upgrade those old outlets? Start the process today by scheduling a no-obligation consultation with your licensed, local electricians.