Rats and mice are quite common house pests; once they find your home to be a safe place to live in and that there are different sources of food there, they will be reluctant to leave. Not only do they pose a health hazard, they also tend to cause a lot of damage to various features on your property and will chew through the insulation of your electrical wiring.

This can affect the system and impact the supply of electricity throughout your property and can be a fire hazard as well. Here are some effective tips to prevent rodent damage to the electrical wiring in your home:

Since rodents are nocturnal creatures, you won’t really see them running around your home in the daytime. However, if you are wary, you will surely hear scratching and chewing sounds in the walls of your homes. You may also hear scurrying noises coming from the attic. You should look out for nesting material or droppings and will typically find these in enclosed spaces.

It’s important to check the wiring’s insulation with regularity to ensure that it’s intact and that it hasn’t been chewed by rodents. The unfortunate part is that this isn’t something you can do for wiring behind walls. However, if you are undertaking any repairs, renovation or upgrades, take that as an opportunity to check the wiring for signs of rodent damage.

If you notice any flickering or experience power fluctuation in a certain room or part of the house, or if you find that a certain circuit breaker keeps tripping for no specific reason, get the system checked for rodent damage.

If you notice any signs of a rodent infestation, it’s important that you act without delay and take some steps to get rid of them. Buy some spring traps and rat poison from your local hardware store and set these at different places where you have seen rat droppings or heard noises. Even as you do this, it’s equally important that you also identify where these pests are entering your property from. Place the bait or poison at these points along your home’s exterior walls.

If you find the infestation to be too severe or if you aren’t too confident about using DIY rodent control measures, call a licensed electrician to inspect the wiring and check it thoroughly for damage. If they confirm that the damage has been caused by rats, it’s a good idea to call pest control professionals to handle the rodent control for you. They will provide solutions and give you advice on the steps you can take to prevent these pests from entering your property.

While the rodent control professionals will ensure that the rats are eliminated from your property, they will also advise you on how to seal all the possible rodent entry points in your home. Aside from very evident points such as doors and open windows, these pests can easily squeeze their way into the indoor spaces of your property through holes and large cracks. If the cracks are too small, they won’t shy from chewing their way in through the loose concrete of the walls.

via Tooshlights.com

Ultimately, Tooshlights wants to improve the public restroom experience. “We’ve all been in a public restroom with a line out the door, and no way to tell if a stall is open, occupied or out of order without looking under the door or peeking through the crack,” Tooshlights.com

Have you been calling for help from an electrician in Los Angeles more often than you’d care to admit? If you have old wiring, whenever you’ve had an electrical service call the electrician should have made you aware of the wiring situation. A knowledgeable Los Angeles electrician will tell you when your electrical wiring needs to be replaced.

Cloth insulated wires may not be grounded properly and are definitely unsafe by today’s standards. The cloth actually falls off, leaving exposed wires in vulnerable areas of your home. If a home’s wiring is aluminum, the wiring shrinks and expands at contact points, causing a potential fire hazard. Neither method is safe. If you think your home may contain either of these types of wiring, The Electric Connection specializes in wiring upgrades for older homes.

The knob and tube wiring that electricians in Los Angeles used before the 1940s employs the use of ceramic knobs and tubing, with wires running through the tubes. It is not a grounded system, so plugging in any modern appliances or electronics is an immediate fire hazard. There are a number of insurance companies that will not offer fire insurance to homes with this type of system. An electrician in Los Angeles from The Electric Connection can upgrade knob and tube for you also.

Homeowners hear the words “electrical upgrade” and immediately start to see dollar signs. With the Electric Connection, the prices are affordable and the work that is recommended is an investment, not an expense. Older wiring systems are not only unsafe; they’re raising the cost of your electricity. More modern systems were developed with efficiency in mind. When a home is upgraded from knob and tube wiring or aluminum wiring, the electric bill immediately goes down, as does the insurance bill and the home repair budget – no more calling a Los Angeles electrician once a month for blown fuses or shorts.

The Electric Connection is the electrician Los Angeles CA homeowners contact most often for electrical upgrades. With over thirty years experience and twenty-five full time employees, all residential and commercial electrical services needs are handled quickly, efficiently, and affordably. Whether it’s a rewiring, an installation, or new construction, the professionals at the Electric Connection can handle it in a timely fashion. If you’re an LA homeowner, your family and your wallet will be happy that you did.

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The strike doesn’t even have to be a direct hit on your home but can occur within half a mile.  As a matter of fact, the majority of surges that most people take are from problems at someone else’s home or somewhere further down on the power company lines.  A surge doesn’t have to be lightning; it can come from an automobile accident that hits a power pole or even from a routine maintenance on the main power lines when they turn the power back on.  This off and on of the power with the main electrical lines can send surges into your home or business that I have seen destroy lots of electronic equipment and appliances.

Almost every home has multiple computers, and expensive home entertainment systems.  Even our appliances are high-tech with monitors built into the doors of refrigerators and laundry appliances with electronic controls.  These items are especially vulnerable to spikes in your home’s electrical current that may cause melted circuit boards and overheated wires.  Repairs to these expensive gadgets are much more costly than replacing a blown out light bulb or electrical outlet.

In the late sixties, and early seventies aluminum wiring began to be used because most available copper was going to the Vietnam war effort. However, aluminum wiring is not ideal for small home electrical systems.  The electrical devices at that time were not designed to handle the high temperature coefficients of aluminum wiring. Aluminum wires can also expand in diameter and length as they get hot, they can actually back out the screw terminals, causing a loose connection. This, in turn, can cause heat, which can ultimately lead to a fire.

After problems with aluminum wire termination became known—including one notable house fire—the UL (Underwriters Laboratories) and other agencies adopted new safety regulations and put more restrictive standards in place. However, many homes from the 60s and 70s still do not have safe aluminum wiring terminations. But there are a number of ways to solve this problem without having to rewire a home.

Consumer Safety Council Recommendations

According to the Consumer Safety Council, there are only two approved methods that splice aluminum wire to copper wire:

These standards have caused acceptance problems with home inspectors and insurance companies, which has led to homeowners paying 2 to 4  times as much as they should to have their aluminum wiring terminated.