For our first blog we'd like to lay a foundation of electrical basics in your home a long with a few explanations on how electrical works in your home. So lets get started shall we.
Your home has a 120/240 volt system and can range from 100 to 600 amps depending on the size of your home.
Every home has a main breaker that can shut power to the entire house typically it is outside next to your electrical meter. It would be useful for you to familiarize yourself early on, on the whereabouts of all your panels inside and out.
Removing any panel covers to access the wiring should only be done by a licensed electrician, while an electrical shock might not kill you it definitely has the potential to if handled wrong, and an ARC flash may cause severe burns and possibly death.
Your homes electrical panel will have multiple breakers, each of these should be labeled as to what that particular circuit powers. A circuit can either power a series of lights or plugs or something specific such as a garbage disposal or dishwasher.
Breakers are over current protection, which means if there are too many things drawing power from the breaker it will trip. Shorts in the system will also trip the breaker.
Tripping a breaker will cause the breaker “handle” to go to the center tripped position. To reset a tripped breaker you must first bring the handle to the OFF position then back to the ON position. If the breaker trips again after resetting it DO NOT keep trying to reset the breaker. Tripping twice indicates there is a problem on that circuit and continuing to attempt a reset could damage something or cause a fire.
Some outlets have a certain orientation and will not allow things to be plugged in that are not in the proper orientation. Do not ever force something to plug in, it could be in the improper orientation or a different voltage, forcing something in will only cause damage to the device and/or your outlet.
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While some things that can conserve energy like, replacing all your appliances to Energy Star ones or changing out you’re A/C system, can be very expensive, other small things you can do can save los of energy at little to no cost.
Lights
The typical light bulb that we’ve all gotten use to is the Incandescent bulb perfected (not invented) by Thomas Edison in 1879. This is how we have brightened up our homes since. Well it took a long time but now we have more energy efficient alternatives, such as the Compaq Fluorescent Lamps (CFL’s), Light Emitting diodes (LED’s), and a few newer technologies we will only see in the years to come. These new lamps are exponentially more efficient by losing less energy to heat loss and giving off more usable light.
Replacing all your bulbs to be CFL’s can save you lots of money and energy. One thing should be noted, most CFL’s cannot be dimmed, they also take a little time to reach full brightness, that’s why we do not recommend them in areas where the light is not on for an extended period of time. Another thing to consider is that CFL’s contain small amounts of mercury which is harmful to the environment and they should be disposed of properly when they go out.
Buying CFL’s maybe a little confusing; there are many things to look for if you’ve decided to go with CFL lamps. Number one is wattage (W), which is how much energy the lamp uses. As far light output is concerned (measured in Lumens) a 13w CFL is approximately equal to a standard 60w bulb that we are all use to. Light color becomes a factor with CFL’s, there are many different choices which is measured in Kelvin (K) and typically ranges from 2500K to 6500K. The standard incandescent light bulb
LED bulbs are new on the scene and a little pricy, but if you are willing to pay a little more they will save you more energy and last a lot longer (some up to 20 years!!). Most LED’s can also be dimmed with the appropriate dimmer and they contain no mercury.
Installing Motion Sensor switches in some areas of your house can also save lots of energy. Areas that would most benefit from Motion Sensor’s would be closets, bathrooms, pantries, hallways, or anywhere else where lights could be forgotten and left on when not in use.
Laptops, Cell Phones, and TV’s Oh My!
Most people don’t realize but your laptop and cell phone chargers pull electricity even when they are not connected to your cell phone or laptop. Even though it is a small amount, leaving them plugged in allows them to pull power 24/7 slowly but surely costing you money (picture a small drip from your faucet, over a week it could fill up the sink and more!) One way to stop this is to either unplug all your chargers when not in use or simply plug them all into a power strip with an on/off button and turn them off all at once.
TV set boxes also can constantly pull power depending on the unit so disconnecting these will also save energy. Some units cannot be disconnected because doing so will cause them to reset every time.
LCD and Plasma TV”s have been all the rage recently. As amazing and space saving as they are unfortunately they do have a down side, they pull more energy than previous TV models. Now we’re not saying to throw away that new television (if you are anyway please send to the address is at the top of this guide). An easy way to make these sets a little lighter on your wallet and the environment is to simply turn the television off when no one is watching, and turn the radio on instead of the TV as background noise.
You’re A/C system and you
Ensuring your Air Conditioning system and or Heat Pump are working properly can save you lots of energy. Being in North Carolina most homes use a Heat Pump style system which both heats in the winter and cools in the summer from the same system. While these are efficient they often use back-up electrical heat strips which turn on when the temperature outside drops really low and the heat pump cannot heat effectively. Unfortunately if your system is not working properly it is hard to tell because the heat strips will pick up the slack, this greatly increases the amount of energy needed to heat your home. Regular maintenance should always be done twice a year to ensure everything is working properly.
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What to do if something is not working properly? First and foremost if you are not comfortable and have no training please do not attempt to fix problems with your electrical system, this could cause you to get hurt and damage your home. We will be glad to come out and repair any problem no matter how big or small.
GFCI’s
Ground-Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) protects circuits that could potentially be exposed to water or moisture. Typically they protect, bathrooms, kitchens, garages, and exterior outlets, there are two types of GFCI’s, a GFCI breaker and an outlet GFCI. Outlet GFCI’s are the outlets you see that have 2 buttons in the center, one says TEST and the other RESET, one of these can protect as many as 10 other outlets, these are more sensitive than breakers to protect you from electrical shock and thus trip a lot more often. Hair dryers are notorious for tripping these quite often. If one of these trips on you all you have to do is unplug everything in that outlet and push in the RESET button. If this button immediately trips again there is a larger problem that might require an electrician.
What if I can’t find my GFCI?
A common problem with homes is that outlets will be protected by a GFCI that is in a different room, outside, or even in the crawl space. Then when there is no power to an outlet is can be a game of hide and seek throughout your home trying to find the culprit GFCI outlet. A great way to solve this is to identify all the GFCI outlets before furniture might be in the way. Here is a quick flow chart of where to check first that could possibly save you time.
If the outlet is in the bathroom
- Check other bathrooms on every level of the house
- Check electrical panel for tripped breaker
- Check the garage outlets
- Call Arc Electric
If the outlet is outside the house
- Check other exterior outlets
- Check Garage outlets
- Check electrical panel for tripped breaker
- Check all bathrooms
- Check crawl space entrance
- Call Arc Electric
