If you live in an older home, you may notice your bathroom is missing a bath fan. While it is easy to chalk these things up to nothing more than an inconvenience, it is actually much more serious than that. Those bath fans do more than circulate the air in the small bathroom. They are an important part of your home’s construction according to an electrician. Pasadena homeowners will want to ensure the fan in each of their bathrooms is working properly and if one is not present, it is important to have one installed. The Electric Connection can take care of this for you.

Bath fans should be used anytime somebody is showering. The steam produced during a hot shower can wreak havoc on your walls, flooring and even the fixtures in the bathroom. Moisture can lead to mildew and mold. Warping of the wood in the floors and walls is also possible. A bath fan pulls the steam out of the bathroom and reduces the risk of these problems happening.

If you do not currently have a fan in a bathroom, you have plenty of options when it comes to choosing the right one for you. Of course, there are the old standards that are nothing more than a fan. But nowadays, there are plenty of options. Lights are a common addition to the fans available today along with heaters. If a person hates using the fan during a hot shower because all the warmth is pulled out of the bathroom, the heat provided by the fan will provide a warm, toasty environment when stepping out of the shower. The fan should be installed by an electrician. Pasadena homeowners can call The Electric Connection to have their new bath fan installed. Take a trip to your home improvement store and check out all of the options you have and then give us a call.

The average home contains 75 electrical outlets of different shapes, sizes, and functionalities.  Are the outlets that line your walls the correct ones for your home?  In this post, we are going to examine the most common outlet types in your home by pointing out the benefits and features of each outlet style.  Additionally, we will introduce you to some modern home outlet options that help keep your devices charged and ready to go.

The Fossil: 2-Prong Outlets

This type of outlet was the standard many years ago.  2-Prong outlets are 15 amp, 125 volt, 2-wired outlets which are commonly seen in older houses.  Since this outlet can only be used for ungrounded circuits, it is quickly becoming obsolete due to safety regulations and code limitations.

The Veteran: 3-Prong Outlets

When you think of an electrical outlet, chances are you are thinking about a 3-Prong, 15 amp, 125 volt outlet.  This outlet type is one of the most common home outlet styles currently available.  Easily recognized by its pair of long, vertical slots positioned above an upside down, u-shaped opening used for grounding the electrical current.  This important safety feature helps to prevent the risk of electrical shock in the event of loose wiring.

The Best of Both Worlds: Switch & Outlet Combination

This combination outlet offers two desirable features in one device.  Whether you are looking to install a new outlet device in your children’s rooms for safety, in the hallways of your home for nightlights, or on the kitchen counter for your appliances, the switch and outlet combo can give you that extra switch or outlet without any additional wiring.

The Safety King: GFCI Outlets

GFCI stands for “Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter.”  This outlet is named after its core feature, which is interrupting the circuit if there is a spike or leak in the current flow.  Current regulations mandate the use of GFCI outlets in areas that are close to running water.  You might have noticed some of these “GFCI Protected Outlets” in your restrooms, laundry room, kitchen, basement, and even outdoor living spaces.  GFCI outlets carefully monitor the flow of electricity, and when they detect that the current is flowing through an unintended path, the GFCI outlets will immediately shut off the electric power circuit.

These outlets can be identified by the presence of two small buttons in the center of the outlet labeled “TEST” and “RESET,” each being a different color.

The Mammoth: 20 Amp, 125 Volt Outlets

This outlet is reserved for the heavy-duty appliances and devices in your home.  While these outlets resemble the normal, 15 amp outlets, they are only intended for high current devices like your large kitchen appliances.  Too similar to the 15 amp outlet for you to keep them apart in your mind?  Remember that these 20 amp outlets have a horizontal slot attached to the upper left vertical opening of the outlet, while the smaller, 15 amp outlets do not.

The Craftsman’s Aide: 20 Amp, 250 Volt Outlets

Recognized by its unique design, the odd shape of these outlets is designed for specific types of equipment commonly found in a hobby shop.  For example, an air compressor would use this outlet type.

Whether you are looking to update your outlets for a modern look, or if you need a little more functionality out of your space, there are plenty of wonderful upgrade options that will fit your style and budget.

USB Outlets

With cell phones, tablets, laptops, and more mobile devices taking up your outlet space, doesn’t it make sense to add some dedicated USB outlets to your home?  USB outlets are a simple and functional way to ensure that everyone in your home always has a fully charged device.

Recessed Outlets

If all those gaps between your walls and furniture are bothering you, you do not have to stick with your standard outlets.  Recessed outlets add space to your home by eliminating the wasted space reserved for bulky cords and wires between walls and furniture.

Tamper Resistant Receptacles

These specialized safety outlets are characterized by a barrier that is intended to prevent children from inserting any foreign objects into the outlet.  These outlets are quickly becoming the new normal, as they are currently required by code in new homes.

Built-In LED Night Light Outlets

Plug-in night lights are fragile and could potentially harm a small child.  Keep those little fingers safe with a night light that is built-in to your electrical outlet.

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.

Electrical contractors and electricians work with electrical wire color codes on a daily basis. But if you’re not one of these professionals, you might be wondering what the different colors of electrical wiring signify.

The simple explanation is that every color used for electrical wiring has a specific meaning, with different colors indicating different circuit types and purposes. Electrical contractors and electricians understand the color codes, but a simple guide can help you understand their significance.

Before beginning, though, it’s important to realize that different countries use different wiring color codes. In some countries, all permissible wiring colors are specified by the applicable governing body, but in others only a few specific types of wiring are required to have specific colors. In those countries, the colors used for some types of wiring are simply established by local practices followed by electrical contractors and electricians. Again, electrical contractors and electricians will be familiar with the wiring colors used in their localities.

So, the meaning of any given wiring color may vary from country to country. It can all get a bit complicated, but here’s a helpful guide to the significance of various colors used for common types of AC (alternating current) electrical wiring in different parts of the world.

American electrical contractors and electricians are required to follow the National Electrical Code (“NEC”) with regard to wiring colors. NEC imposes the following electrical wiring color standards:

In theory, wiring conducting live current in the U.S. is permitted to be any other color, although in practice, electrical contractors and electricians follow these local conventions:

Most countries in Europe, including the U.K., now follow the color conventions established by the International Electrotechnical Commission (“IEC”). These color conventions are as follows:

Electrical wiring in Canada is governed by the Canadian Electric Code (“CEC”). The following wiring color requirements apply in Canada:

It’s important to remember that the above color information applies only to AC circuits. Completely different color standards apply to wiring used in DC circuits.