Other parts of the country may be warming up and getting ready to use our air conditioners, but we’re still relying on our heaters to get us through more than a few chilly nights. So if yours begins to malfunction, you may start to panic. This is understandable, but know that if you’ve had your system maintained before the heating season began, it may likely not even be an issue with the system itself.

Instead, you may be in need of Newton, MA electrical wiring services for some component of your heater. Keep reading to learn more about how your heater can be impacted by electrical issues.

This applies to both electrical furnaces as well as boilers. Both of these systems use heating elements—a set of coils that burn hot as a current passes through them—in order to raise the temperature of the air (furnaces) or water (boilers).

Both of these systems contain more than one heating element. Therefore, if you one fails you likely won’t lose your heat entirely, but your heater won’t be able to work as efficiently as it otherwise would.

If you’re utilizing a heat pump, then this is the most common electrical problem you might run into. Capacitors are cylindrical devices about the size of a soda can, responsible for sending electrical charges to the motors to start and keep them running.

Capacitors can burn out after years of use, or suffer from wiring issues, causing the heat pump to “hard start” (draining power) or quit functioning all together. You’ll need a professional to replace the damaged electrical capacitors.

Even if you have a heater that runs off of natural gas, oil, propane, or geothermal power, it’s going to have an electrical thermostat controlling it. Thermostats with failing wiring will begin to malfunction, often incorrectly registering your home’s temperature or failing to accurately set the heater. If your heater is failing to reach its target temperature with no other signs of a problem, your thermostat wiring could certainly be to blame.

By Clarissa Allison | August 28th, 2015

If you are a homeowner considering outdoor lighting, then you have probably heard about solar landscape lighting. In addition to being environmentally friendly, light emitting diode which prevents the battery’s current from flowing back through the solar cell during the night. The battery charges during the daytime, and will meet its maximum charge before dusk. A photovoltaic cell then changes the sun’s light into electricity. Although environmental factors affect the performance of solar lights they will work outdoors throughout most of the year.

Many solar lights are self-sustaining, or “stand-alone” systems. These convert sunlight into electricity during the day, store the electricity in batteries, and draw from the batteries to power light fixtures after dusk.

Self-contained solar lights often have panels built right into the light fixtures. Solar lighting systems with panels separate from fixture assemblies, however, allow for only the panels to be placed in the sun, not the lights themselves.

With little ones crawling around the floors, it is hard to always keep an eye on what they are doing all the time. Electrical outlets are at the perfect height for them and seem to be the most interesting thing to investigate. This convenience leads to hundreds of children suffering severe shock (electrocution) each year. This is why tamper resistant outlets are so important. If your home is missing tamper resistant outlets, it may be time to upgrade.

A tamper resistant outlet looks just like a normal outlet, to the untrained eye but have important mechanisms behind the plastic to ensure that nothing foreign can find their way into electricity. Behind the two top prong holes is a small plastic panel. This panel slides across to cover the prong holes. If a child approaches the receptacle with a key or other narrow object with the intention to insert it into the outlet, the plastic panel will prevent them. No matter how much force they apply, it will block the foreign object from entering the outlet and allowing electrical current to escape.

If this plastic panel is preventing objects from entering the prong holes, how do you plug in your normal devices then? The trick to this is that pressure must be applied equally through both prong holes in order to slide the panel to the open position. If there is uneven pressure, the panel does not move. This is how it can prevent paperclips from entering, but operates seamlessly when plugging in a lamp.

Tamper resistant outlets can prevent serious injuries to children. If you have a young one making their way around your home and you aren’t sure if you have tamper resistant receptacles, now is the best time to check. Contact your local Expert Electric at 604-681-8338. We can help to identify what kinds of outlets are used in your home, and upgrade them if needed.

Last winter may have been an exceptionally challenging one here in Massachusetts, but the fact of the matter is that every winter is a bit of a gamble as far as weather goes. One thing that you do not want to gamble with, though, is your electrical service. When you have a whole-house automatic standby generator installed on your property, you’ll never have to. This type of generator is wired directly into your home’s electrical system, and will monitor that system in order to ascertain if and when the power goes out. When it does, your generator will spring into action automatically.