As I’ve said before, I’ve spent years in the electrical business working hard to help people save money and keep safe.  But I’m not really any different from any other American.  At the end of the day, I get to lay down my work for a while and come home to my wife and children, and I want nothing more in all the world than for them to be happy and safe.  For me, that’s one of the places where being a parent and being a Top Garland electrician can come together.  I have the expertise from my trade to do what any parent would want to do; make your home safer for your family.  Which makes this story I’m about to share with you hit me even harder than it would otherwise.  I can’t think of anything worse than something like this befalling the people I love.

Not so long ago, a mother in Texas was bathing her five and six year-old children when disaster struck.  A hair dryer, plugged into an outlet nearby, was accidentally pulled off a nearby counter, and wound up falling into the bathtub.  The current from the hair dryer quickly passed into the bathwater.  Neither child survived.

What makes the story even more tragic is that the deaths of these children could have been prevented with an investment of less than sixty dollars in equipment and labor costs.   Specifically, installing a GFCI or Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter, could have saved the lives of these children. The home the family lived in was an older home, and as a result the circuit in the bathroom wasn’t equipped with this simple yet incredibly important piece of equipment.

A GFCI is designed to quickly interrupt the flow of electric current when it detects that the current is imbalanced, which is a sign that current’s passing through something other than what it’s supposed to, like a person.  This can be a danger when we’re dealing with outlets close to water; the composition and chemical structure of water make it an extremely effective conductor of electric current.  It doesn’t take very much water, either; unplugging an appliance with your hand in a small amount of spilled water on a counter top can cause you to suddenly complete a circuit to the ground, giving you a very nasty shock.

As you might expect, this means that a GFCI should (and by code, must) be installed anywhere there’s a electric device close to water. This isn’t limited to kitchens and bathrooms either; GFCIs should also be installed on outlets located in garages, near any counter top, near pools and hot tubs, and on any external outlets.

We don’t always think of external outlets as needing a GFCI, but they do; remember, any electronic equipment you use outside interacts with the elements.  Using an electric lawn care device, like a weed whacker or electric mower on wet grass can be dangerous, especially if you happen to run over the cord, which could create a circuit between the electricity and the ground through your body.

One of the most common issues I see where GFCIs are lacking, and could be potentially dangerous, lie where there is plenty of water:  your swimming pool.   Older pools, like older homes, may not have a GFCI installed on the pool light located under the surface.  Over time, the seal that keeps water out of the pool light can break down; if and when they do, it can turn your pool from a fun place to spend time to a place to get to get your goose cooked in the blink of an eye.

Although all outlets like the ones listed above must be equipped with GFCIs according to code, this hasn’t always been the case.  Older homes, like the one where those two children were killed, may have been built before these regulations were put in place.  If you have any question whatsoever I strongly recommend that you contact a Top Garland electrician as soon as possible to perform an inspection.

Smoke detectors are an important part of safety in the home. These cheap little devices can save your home and your life. If your lucky, the only time you’ve heard one go off is when the toast burnt. It’s easy for us to forget to check on them or even forget to test them after purchasing a new home. But they should not only be checked regularly, but require correct installation. Let’s go over some of the basics of having smoke detectors in the home.

Having smoke detectors placed in various locations around your home allows for fast and effective detection. Once the smoke detector siren sounds, it will warn you that there is a potential fire. You can quickly check the nature of the problem and hopefully prevent any further damage. It will also wake you at night before any harm can come to anyone in your home. The siren also helps firefighters quickly locate the fire in the home so they can focus their efforts.

Because smoke rises, smoke detectors are always placed on the roof for ideal detection. There are two common types of smoke detectors, photoelectric and ionization. Photoelectric sensors use a beam of light within the detector to sense any smoke in the air. The beam will shoot in a straight line when the air is clear. In the presence of smoke the light will scatter, this is when the alarm will go off. Ionization detectors use a chamber with a small electrical current. When smoke enters the chamber and the level of ions in the air changes, the electrical current drops and the alarm will sound.

It is recommended that there are smoke detectors on each floor of your home. If doors to rooms are closed often, it is best to have a detector installed in that room. The device should be placed away from rooms that create steam, such as showers or a laundry room, as this steam could trigger the smoke detector. Most smoke detectors use double sided tape to stick the device to the ceiling. You will need to drill the mount to your ceiling and attach the smoke detector to the sticky mount. Ensure that the batteries you use are working properly.

Smoke detector testing should be done on a monthly basis because batteries can die and sensors can become faulty. Each smoke detector will have a button on it to manually sound the siren. Push this button for a few seconds to ensure the siren is working correctly and the batteries are still active. To test the sensor, you can use an aerosol can of smoke to spray into the smoke detector. It may take a couple minutes for the siren to deactivate, as the smoke needs to clear from inside of the chamber first.

Smoke detectors are vitally important to keeping your home and family safe. We can help you to install smoke detectors around your home and position them to give you the best coverage.