Holidays are a known time for seeing friends and family, some of whom you may not be able to see often throughout the rest of the year. A hobby some people love during the holidays is to add decorative lighting to add a warm welcoming appeal to their homes. Whether your lighting is serious and somber to show your religious beliefs or fun and playful to reflect your personality, there are a few things to be aware of with the extra power draw your decorations put on your house.

Tech Specs and Electrical Engineering

When the public electric line reaches your house, it runs to a circuit breaker (or fuse box in older homes) to prevent dangerous levels of overload which could cause a shock, and the breaker is designed to automatically shut off if a dangerous level of electricity is reached with a surge or if too many appliances are run. There are exceptions, but most circuit breakers are designed to handle 15 amps, or a little over 1600 watts of power which is plenty for modern appliances.

The Simple Terms: When You Run Too Much Power

When you overload a circuit breaker, it becomes a nuisance as everything running on that line shuts down. It's not normally a daily occurrence, but usually only happens when something exceptional occurs. Running too many kitchen appliances at once, for example, can overload a circuit breaker, as can running a space heater or power tool on a line already being used. A common cause of circuit failure is when you've never had a problem running a hairdryer and curling iron until a guest in the guest bath turns on a second hairdryer. Holiday lighting usually runs on a low power supply but adds up when layered and can cause problems with a line which is already near its maximum usage levels.

The Layman's and the Professional's Solutions

Carbon Monoxide – The Silent Killer

ElectricMan’s motto is “Quality Electrical Services”, and to achieve this, we feel like it’s our duty to inform our customers of the importance of home and electrical issues that might affect them. One of these dangers is Carbon Monoxide.

Carbon Monoxide is a toxic gas that is odorless, tasteless, colorless, and non-irritating, so it is very difficult to detect unless you have a carbon monoxide detector. It’s often produced by older motor vehicles and other gasoline-powered tools, heaters, and cooking equipment such as furnaces, heaters, wood-burning stoves, electrical generators, and propane-fueled equipment like portable stoves. Simply put, carbon monoxide is produced whenever gas, oil, kerosene, wood, or charcoal is burning.

Carbon monoxide is the leading cause of accidental poisoning deaths in America. The Centers for Disease Control estimate that carbon monoxide poisoning claims nearly 500 lives and causes more than 15,000 visits to the hospital emergency departments annually.

Symptoms of mild poisoning include headaches, vertigo, and flu-like effects, but larger exposure can lead to severe heart and central nervous system problems and even death. If you do suspect poisoning, get fresh air immediately. Open windows and doors, turn off combustion appliances, and leave the house. Take your pets outside too! Go to an emergency room and tell the doctor. A blood test is the best way to make the diagnosis. Treatment usually involves high doses of oxygen using a facemask.

Prevention is the key to avoiding carbon monoxide poisoning. Have your fuel-burning appliances inspected by a professional at the beginning of every heating season. Don’t idle your car in the garage, even with the garage door open, don’t use a gas oven to heat your home, don’t ever use a charcoal grill indoors, don’t sleep in a room with an unvented gas or kerosene space heater, and don’t use gasoline-powered engines in enclosed spaces. Have carbon monoxide detectors installed.

The National Fire Protection Association says that 93% of homes have smoke alarms but the Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that only 15% have carbon monoxide alarms.

Here at ElectricMan, we can professionally install smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors in your home, because carbon monoxide poisoning is no small matter, and we care about your safety. We’re a family business and we put family first, including yours! We’re also available 24 hours, 7 days a week.

At ElectricMan Inc, we can professionally install smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors, because carbon monoxide poisoning is no small-matter, and we care about your safety. We’re a family business and we put family first, including yours!

Over the years, our clients have asked many questions about their electrical systems; how to best care for them, what the cause of certain issues are, and more. We’ve compiled just a few of the most common questions we get below, with our responses.

A: Is the switch all the way in the “off” position? You have to feel it click off before you can reset it. If you are able to return it to the “on” position—you’ll feel another click—and it does not trip again, then you were successful. If it continues to trip, then there could be a chance that you have a short circuit or an overloaded circuit. Quite often, an electrical panel upgrade is the solution.

A: There are a number of possible reasons this can be occurring. First, check for a tripped circuit breaker. Then, if it’s a GFCI outlet, check for a reset button right on the outlet itself. Push that, if there is one. In the absence of either of these issues, then it may just be an old outlet that needs replacing. Just like any other electrical component, it can wear out over time and is usually no reason for huge concern.

Do, though, make sure you don’t smell or see any smoke or smoldering—this can be indicative of frayed wires starting an electrical fire. If you do detect smoke, your next step is to call the fire department.

Flickering can happen with certain types of lightbulbs and are sometimes not a cause for concern at all. However, if either of flickering or dimmer are occurring when you turn something on or an appliance cycles on in your home, then you probably have an overloaded electrical panel. Another possibility is that the lightbulbs you have installed in whatever fixture is creating the issues are not adequate bulbs for that fixture.