A modern convenience often taken for granted, electric power, can be found everywhere. To route electricity from the power station to your wall outlet requires many steps. Residential house wiring includes a variety of wiring and control devices to ensure safe and reliable service.

Electricity in the home is distributed by means of branch circuits. Furthermore, each branch circuit is supplied via a circuit breaker sized per the expected load on the circuit. A typical lighting and receptacle circuit will be rated at 15A. Because of their size, larger loads like ovens, clothes dryers, and air conditioning units are given dedicated circuit breakers.

A typical home can have dozens of 15A circuits, and several 20A, 30A, or even 50A circuits. Yet the total of all these breakers is much more than the size of the main breaker. However, this is intentional. It’s highly unlikely that every circuit will be fully loaded at any one time, so a demand factor is taken into account to keep the main breaker at a reasonable size.

A wood-framed home will typically use solid copper non-metallic sheathed cable for the majority of wiring applications. Solid conductors are easy to terminate and cheaper than equivalent stranded wire. The AWG size of the wire is determined by the expected load on the circuit and by the size of the breaker protecting it. You should never connect a wire to a breaker that is too large to protect it, as an overloaded wire can easily catch fire.

Ensuring Your Residential Wiring and Fuse Box are Up to Code Homes can encounter a variety of electrical issues. Makings sure your home’s electrical wiring is up to par is extremely important. If you believe your home is experiencing problems with its electrical wiring, you should call a professional residential electrician to take care of the problem for you.

Using Modern Technology Many houses are older, so they have electrical wiring is out of date. As technology has advanced, so have our gadgets, devices and appliances. Older electrical wiring was not designed with such advanced technology in mind, so it is important to make sure your home’s wiring is updated and capable of handling your newer appliances, technology, lighting and electronics.

Fuse Boxes and Circuit Breakers While some older homes have fuse boxes, newer homes have circuit breaker panels. Fuse boxes work just fine, unless fuses with amperages too high for the wiring are installed. If the inappropriate fuses are installed, and insulation has been damaged, the old circuit needs immediate attention by being rewired.

When to Rewire Wiring problems can be serious in nature and can cause major risks to your home. You don’t want any safety concerns. If your home is older than 50 years old or you are buying an older home, you should hire a professional residential electrician to go over the wiring and ensure it is safe.

Older homes may require rewiring or need some repairs. It may be wise to get follow-up inspections for your home’s wiring regularly, about every 5 years. You don’t want to risk damaging your home or the safety of your family.

Power overloads are one of the many scenarios an emergency electrician can help a homeowner address and prevent. In the event of an electrical emergency like a power overload, which can be the result of faulty wiring, only a qualified emergency electrician will be thorough enough to find the problem, repair it and help you avoid it in the future.

Overloads, though seemingly minor issues, are, in fact,  one of the most overlooked and dangerous problems you can have with your electrical system. An overload can cause everything from electrical shorts to fires. What’s more, a power overload is one of the most avoidable electrical problems—you don’t have to let it get to the point of electrical emergency.

What is an Overload and What are the Causes?

During a power overload, the circuit gets overwhelmed and shuts itself off. It’s a common occurrence in many homes. For instance, you could have the microwave, a rice cooker and a stove running off the same circuit in your kitchen when you suddenly notice that your power goes out in the kitchen while it stays on in the rest of the house. Then you check the breakers and realize that the breaker wasn’t tripped.

Because they see things like this all the time, licensed electricians can easily identify the source of the trouble. There are generally three main causes of power overloads.

 Power overloads are preventable with a little thought and planning. When ignored, however, they can result in very costly repairs—or worse.

 Electric Man: Emergency Electrician to the Rescue

Are you experiencing a power overload or another issue that requires an electrical troubleshoot? Electric Man’s emergency electrician crew is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to respond to your electrical emergency. Give us a call today at 972-792-7270 to learn more about our emergency electrician services. You can also connect with us on any of our social networks!

Electrical motors are devices that convert electrical energy into mechanical force. They operate on the principles of electromagnetism, using the interaction between winding currents and magnetic fields to generate force. Some motors, like those used in the transportation industry can reverse the effect and generate electricity too, converting force into electricity.

Many industrial plants attribute over 70% of their power consumption to motors, so even a slight increase in efficiency can dramatically cut energy spending and improve profits too.

As you walk around your house trying to find ways to save a few dollars here and there on your electric bill, you may be overlooking the obvious. Your current light bulbs. You have probably seen the more expensive light bulbs in the spiral shape in the stores but may have passed over them in favor of the less expensive bulbs. Your electrician in Glendale is here to tell you, you may be costing yourself more money by choosing those cheaper bulbs.

The experienced professionals at The Electric Connection can answer any questions you have about energy savings. One of the easiest things you can do is to start changing out your current halogen bulbs for the more energy efficient Compact Florescent Bulbs or what are simply referred to as CFLs. A CFL uses 75 percent less energy than the old standard bulbs.

Your light usage in your home probably accounts for maybe $20 on an average $100 monthly electric bill. So, if you replace each of your current energy hogging bulbs with CFLs, you could potentially safe about $15 on your electric bill. While that is not a massive amount of savings, it will certainly add up. Don’t be fooled by the word florescent. There is no eerie yellow or green glow. They are available in a variety of colors depending on your preference. If you have more questions, you can ask your electrician. Glendale residents may also want to consider replacing outdated lighting fixtures with more modern energy efficient fixtures.

This is a job for a certified electrician. While there, the electrician can install dimmer switches on lights that do not need to be at full power all of the time. These dimmers give you the freedom to have just a little light or a lot, depending on what your needs are. Call The Electric Connection today to learn more about dimmer switches and how they can help you.