Common Electrical Mistakes People Make In Their Homes
If you’re in the process of undertaking a DIY home renovation or are adding a couple of appliances to your home, you’ll probably need to upgrade your wiring and circuit breakers. Unfortunately, DIY’ers overlook some of the essential steps that have to be taken when upgrading the wiring themselves. These omissions have the potential to cause severe damage to life and property by becoming a fire hazard.
As professional electricians in Winnipeg, MB, we understand the hazards of electricity and how a small error can lead to a catastrophe. To help you steer clear of such errors, Connco Electric has put together a list of four of the most common electrical mistakes people make in their homes.
1. Seeking expert advice from sources on the internet.
One of the most common mistakes DIY’ers make is seeking expert advice from YouTube or some untrusted internet source that they heard about. We understand that tradespeople are not cheap, but that is because we have experience and education in a particular field that requires patience and focus. Without this, we would be just a DIY’er ourselves. Customers should care about correcting this mistake because when done wrong, the consequences can be very expensive or more importantly a safety hazard. If you think a professional is expensive, try an amateur.
2. Installing the wrong wire in a circuit.
A mistake most untrained people make is installing the wrong wire in a circuit. To help you understand why installing the right wire is important, here’s a simple example: would you connect a garden hose to a fire hydrant? If your answer is yes, you need a more in-depth understanding of fire fighting, piping, and electricity. If you said no, you’re on the right track.
In electrical work, wire size is everything. To continue with the same example, if you install a garden hose on a hydrant, it would only be a matter of time before the pressure gives and shoots water in every direction, but if you had a two-inch hose, the pressure would hold. With wire, consider amperage the same as water, but if we use a wire size that is too small, the wire heats up and can arc therefore causing an electrical fire or hazard. To fix this, it would be best if you call a trusted electrician and your insurance agent.
3. Installing the wrong breaker size.
Another mistake DIY’ers make is installing the wrong breaker size. If you are guilty of this, either you didn’t know what you were doing, or you were too lazy to do it, therefore you shouldn’t have been doing it. Once the overcurrent protection is incorrect, you have just put everything at risk. Remember, in the old days once the fuse “popped,” daddy just put a bigger one in? When this happens, the breaker will not trip when it should, therefore, the wire will heat up until it “springs a leak or arcs out,” but once that happens, a fire usually follows. A good rule of thumb is, “If you don’t know, please don’t guess, call an electrician, he or she will do the rest.”
4. Hiring an electrician solely on price.
Most of us aren’t born with a silver spoon, so shopping by price is unavoidable. However, if you do your homework, you’ll find a reliable tradesperson whom you can trust. Moreover, references are best as they determine quality, professionalism, and attitude. If you do your research now, “you can nip it in the bud as momma always said.”
To avoid these and other mistakes, reach out to the experts at Connco Electric. As professional electricians in Winnipeg, MB, we are dedicated to providing Winnipeg residents and businesses with professional home and office electrical repair and general electrical maintenance of the highest quality.
We are an honest, efficient and reliable company, built on integrity, hard work and long-standing family values. We strive to create invaluable relationships with our clients and work towards offering you unbeatable products and services with professionalism, excellence, and affordability.
For a complete list of our services, please click here. If you have any questions about electrical work, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us here.