As a Dallas Electrician with over 27 years of experience, ElectricMan Inc. has seen many of the dangers of DIY Electrical first hand, and has often been called in to make repairs after a DIY home improvement project has gone wrong, or the home owner realized that they were in over their head. The experience to take on any electrical home improvement project is something that is obtained by years of professional training and experience under a Licensed Master Electrician. That kind of experience isn’t something that the average Do-It-Yourselfer has, even if you do consider yourself a Jack-Of-All Trades.

One of the biggest dangers of DIY Electrical work is simply the fact that electricity can be deadly when not handled properly. Many DIY home improvement projects are often done in a hurry, and without proper planning. Something as simple as forgetting to switch off the breaker, using the wrong tools for the job, or even accidentally brushing up against the wrong wire can send high voltage coursing through a human body, easily causing burns, ventricular fibrillation (uncontrolled movement of the heart muscles), and death. We are so accustomed to being able to flip a switch and use electricity in our daily life that we often forgot how powerful it truly is.

One of the major causes for DIY Electrical accidents is unfamiliarity with the electrical circuits in your home. Due to shoddy electrical workmanship in many older homes, it is often difficult to tell which outlets, appliances, and lighting fixtures are on a given circuit, especially if your breaker box was improperly labeled, or if the labeling has faded over time. Most home owners will simply switch off breakers until they see the lights turn off in the area that they will be working, and assume it is safe to start working. This is an incredibly dangerous practice since it is not always the case that all outlets and lighting fixtures in an area will be on the same circuit. A Licensed Dallas Electrician will be familiar with standard wiring practices and will know the proper way to test the circuit that they will be working on to ensure that it is safe.

Another huge benefit to using a licensed electrician for your home electrical work is that they will be well versed in all of the building and safety codes required to make sure the job is done right. The reason that this is important is two-fold. First, it is legally required to adhere to all building and safety codes, and if you ever intend on selling your home or having it inspected for any other reason, a DIY Electrical repair or addition will cause your home to fail inspection if building and safety codes are not followed to the letter, generally costing you more money later down the line to have an improperly performed job repaired. Secondly, and even more important, is the fact that building and safety codes are put in place for a reason. If you are not familiar with these codes or do not follow them, you are putting yourself and your family at risk of electrical shock, electrical fires, and injury or death due to a faulty repair.

A reliable Licensed Dallas Electrician such as ElectricMan Inc. will ensure that any home improvement project involving electricity in your home is completed correctly, in compliance with all of the proper safety and building codes, and will guarantee their work to ensure a successful outcome, and the safety of you and your family. If you would like to learn more about the capabilities and experience of ElectricMan Inc. or discuss a project or repair that you are planning for your home, reach out to us today by phone at 972-792-7270, or visit us at our website at www.electricmaninc.com!

Having access to a 24/7 emergency electrical service is a necessity, not a luxury. There’s no telling when something in your house’s electrical system might malfunction, and a quick response is crucial. At the same time, you might feel tempted to try your hand at fixing the problem yourself to save time and cut back on expenses. This is a big mistake, one that can jeopardize your safety while also costing you more money and time than you were hoping to save in the first place. Getting help from the professionals is by far the best way to handle electrical problems safely and effectively.

Of all the reasons you shouldn’t try to perform electrical repairs yourself, the most important is the very real risk of hurting yourself. Electrical work can be dangerous, which is why experts go through so much training to do their job. Remember that every electrical system packs a huge punch of power, and a shock could be enough to injure or kill.

Even if you think you’re knowledgeable enough to do the job yourself, there is always a chance of running into complications that only a professional can handle. Calling for 24/7 emergency electrical service is the right choice — your safety is too important to gamble with for the sake of saving money.

If you’ve fallen victim to a serious electrical issue, trying to get the problem resolved quickly can backfire if it ends up being more serious than you suspected. A minor repair that seems to help the problem at first could be covering up a more critical issue, which could become a costly problem later on.

Any building, in any industry, in any area of the world, is susceptible to having potentially hazardous and radioactive exit signs installed throughout their building.

This could mean they are in schools, near your office, or anywhere else where a radioactive setting probably isn’t a desired situation to be in.

This is why we thought it was necessary to create this post to help and guide you towards identifying, removing, and finally replacing your radioactive exit signs with new signs that are much safer and even efficient, saving you money over other alternatives.

Firstly before we can remove and replace these seemingly nuclear exit signs, you have to be able to identify if you have them or not. But before that, lets explain what exactly makes these exit signs radioactive.

How are some exit signs radioactive?

Just the same way as some exit signs are safe, it is all in the way they are built. For some reason, whether it be technology of the time or something else, people assumed it was a good idea to create exit signs with Tritium, also known as 3H or H-3. Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, causing exit signs made with this to be radioactive by default. The only seemingly positive upside to these exit signs is that they are non-electrical, meaning they won’t rack up anything in electricity bills.

But before you become alarmed with what we have shared with you so far, tritium emits only a low-energy beta radiation, which in turn causes the sealed glass tube it is in to glow (causing the exit sign to give off the illumination it requires). Thankfully, it is rather well known that this type of radiation can hardly (if at all) penetrate a piece of paper or clothing. So while yes it is a very low level (energy wise) type of radiation, the fact that there are alternatives that will remove radiation entirely from your building is all the reason to uninstall your tritium exit signs and replace them with something more safe, like LED exit signs.

Now that you understand the technology and how tritium in exit signs work a little bit more, let’s go over how exactly you can identify whether or not you have these types of exit signs in your building.

Identifying a radioactive exit sign should be fairly easy. All of these signs are required to have some sort of “Caution of Radioactive Material” warning on the fixture.

If you do find such a warning label, it is safe to say your light is made of tritium. Another tell-tale sign is whether or not your signs are connected to an electrical source or not as tritium signs do not require any such connection.

Once you’ve identified if you have a tritium exit sign or not, if you do happen to have one, you may continue on to removing and replacing it with the alternative exit sign, LED.

As with any lighting fixture, we recommend to bring in a professional contractor to do the job. But as a general guideline, you can typically recycle your tritium signs by returning them to the manufacturer or place of purchase.

If you purchased the building with them pre-installed and are unsure of where they came from after inspection of the signs for any brand markings, you can try two things:

1: Try contacting the previous building owner or collect records of where they were manufactured

2: Recycle them with a third party. like these), buying them, then installing them yourself or with a professional (we recommend a professional).

Here are a few things you should remember and keep in mind when dealing with a building that has radioactive exit signs: