Tag: fire safety

Handy Tips for Eliminating Electrical Fire Hazards

tips for eliminating electrical fire hazards

Everyone is aware of how a fire can potentially spring up at any moment, wreaking havoc before you’re even aware that it’s happening. However, a lot of us probably don’t associate house fires with electrical malfunctions, even though they’re fairly prevalent.

In fact, roughly 6% of all house fires were electrical fires in 2014, according to the United States Fire Administration. These types of fires can happen in the blink of an eye, which is why it’s so important to safeguard your home so you minimize the chance of one happening. Here are some tips for eliminating electrical fire hazards from the trusty electricians at Weeks Service Company!

Consider Replacing Appliances

Although we get attached to certain devices and appliances in our homes, the sentimental value isn’t worth the hazard some of these things present. If you ignore replacing them for too long, you’re putting you and your family at risk.

Things like washers, dryers and heaters should be replaced as soon as they reach the end of their shelf life – if not a little earlier, just to be safe. A rogue spark from one of these appliances’ cords can easily jump to a rug or another flammable material, creating an electrical fire before you know it.

Always Clean Your Lint Traps

Turns out that the little lint screen in the top of your dryer is important. Lint is extremely flammable, and if you neglect to change out the lint trap when you begin drying clothes, you run the risk of it catching fire – and that percentage only increases the more you ignore it.

So, even though you probably do it every time, just make sure not to forget to change it out!

Check Your Outlets

One way that electrical fires get started is when an older outlet gets loose or the wires inside them begin to fray. The electrical connections begin losing their integrity, which makes it easier for sparks to jump around. You’ll usually see discoloration around the outlets when they decline in quality, which means it’s time to call an electrician.

They’ll take a look at your outlets – and the electrical system at large – to see whether it’s just an isolated incident or something that warrants a larger strategy to fix.

Don’t Overload Your Circuits

It’s tempting to plug everything we’ve got into a few outlets, especially in areas like the living room where we’ve got home theaters and the like. Although it’s convenient, this type of strain on your circuits can eventually cause serious problems.

Circuits can only handle so much of an electrical load before they get overloaded and short-circuit. Make sure to space out which circuits you’re plugging things into if you can to avoid this hazard.

Weeks Service Company: Providing League City with Top-Notch Electrical Service

We know how difficult it can be to keep track of all the different ways electrical hazards present themselves. You’ve got a million other things to keep track of every day, and worrying about overloading circuits can be confusing. Leave it to us!

Weeks Service Company has the knowledge and expertise to eliminate electrical hazards in your home. Give us a call at 281-738-1362 to see how we can safeguard your electrical system once and for all!