Electrical Safety Tips to look out for in your home

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Electrical Safety Tips To Look Out For In Your Home

Everyday electricity is an important essential part of our modern lives now, which is the main reason that many of us today could not imagine our lives without this energy system.

Everything from creating power to our appliances, providing our heating, lighting, cooling, electricity is so essential in our everyday living, it’s easy for us to be careless and forget that if we fail to respect and use wisely, it can have the potential to cause some serious injuries and even death in some unfortunate cases. We have built this information page to make people more aware of the dangers involved. Here are a few safety tips when dealing with electricity in your home. It’s all about creating that safe environment in your home, office or workplace. Stay safe!

Lights

Lights can often look and seem safe, but they can easily cause an electric shock if not treated with caution and respect.

These tips should be adhered to when handling any kind of electric lighting in the home:

  • Always switch off the light switch first which will isolate the lighting before changing a light bulb.
  • Do not change a light bulb or touch the light switch when your hands are wet or damp.
  • To prevent any overheating, use a lightbulb with the correct wattage.
  • When you paint a ceiling, don’t remove the ceiling rose, just mask the item instead
  • Whenever tiling in a kitchen around electric sockets, switches and light fittings, get a professional electrician to remove and place back when the tiling is finished.

Appliances

We have an obsession with appliances these days in our homes. We seem to have an appliance for everything! Washing machines, microwaves, toasters, television sets and computers. But are you aware of the numerous risks of electric shocks if not treated with precaution?

  • Always inspect your personal house appliances on a regular basis for any damages such as plugs, switches or power leads, idf you spot anything untoward, get the problem repaired straight away.
  • If you throw an appliance away then please cut off the lead or make sure another person cannot use the item.
  • Always disarm and switch off and remove the plug from the electrical socket, before attempting to clean your appliance.
  • Do not insert any metal objects in any appliances, ever! Like a toaster
  • Never handle or touch any appliances while your hands are damp or wet.
  • Always turn off your ovens, heaters, and air conditioning units before you go out.
  • Make sure your appliances such as televisions, computers and monitors have a good amount of space surrounding them for air to circulate properly.
  • Do not fold up electric blankets before storing, as it’s easy to cause damage to the wire elements within.

Power and Extension Leads

These leads are our source of power to connect our appliances, but they too need to be treated with caution and awareness. Take a look at these Safety advice tips:

  • Extension leads are a temporary measure to power up your appliances. They are ok to use but be careful with how you use them. Never place them under carpets or rugs and run the outstretched cable around the perimeter wall to avoid tripping.
  • Take care to remove the plug from the wall socket and to avoid pulling the lead instead as dangerous.
  • Make sure to use any external extension leads that are specially rated for that purpose, and protect any connections from adverse weather
  • Totally unravel extensions fully before you start using as they can start to act as a coil and overheat quickly and become damaged and unsafe.

Accident and Safety prevention

We have always found that the best form of protection when it comes to the dangers of electricity, is always prevention, and these risks and accidents can be greatly reduced by observing a few simple rules and regulations.

  • Do not try to complete DIY electrical work yourself. It can be very dangerous in untrained hands, and could easily lead to electrocution or even home fires. Always call in a professional electrician such as Alpha Electricians.
  • Make sure to replace any old type ceramic wire fuse set-ups, with the new updated switch circuit breakers, they are much safer!
  • Test out your safety switches once every three months or so, to make sure they work properly.
  • A good idea is to install safety switches or Residual Current Devices (RCDs) installed. These are ideal in an emergency situation, as they cut the power flow in around 1/1000 of a second, which will prevent any serious electrocutions.
  • Call a qualified electrician to do an electrical safety audit to pinpoint any possible future dangers in your house or business premises.

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Extension Leads and power adapters

In today’s modern world we seem to need a power source for everything, and because of this we never have enough outlets or they are not situated exactly where we require them. So to accommodate this we utilise extension leads and double power adapters. But you should be cautious when using these as they can cause an overload problem and even catch fire!

  • Do not double up an already double adapter as it could very well catch fire if overloaded too much.
  • Do not overload any type of extension lead with so many appliances and double check to make sure this lead has the right amperage to run these appliances safely before being plugged in.
  • Try to always purchase and use extension leads that have built in overload switches, that are much safer option all round
  • Inspect your extension leads and plug adapters for yellowing and discoloration. If you witness this please change straight away to avoid any mishaps and accidents.
  • Always take care to make sure your extension leads and power adapters have sufficient space around them so they are well ventilated to stop any overheating from occurring.
  • Remove extension leads from electric wall sockets, if not being used for any future length of time!

Electricity and wet areas

I assure you that electricity and water are not a good mixture, so maximum precautions must be made in these wet and dangerous areas.

These include the following

  • Wear rubber-soled footwear when working in wet areas like the laundry.
  • Keep stereos well away from swimming pools and spas to prevent splashing.
  • Never use portable electric heaters in a bathroom.
  • In the bathroom, always unplug and safely store hair dryers and electric shavers when not in use.
  • Do not use extension cords in wet areas unless specifically designed for such use.

Electricity is certainly dangerous! And can potentially kill, but if common sense and some simple rules are adhered to, we can all live safe and sound around it! To read more on electrical fault finding, please visit this page.