It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
Goodwill is in the chilly air, gifts are being purchased, and evenings are being spent in comfort by the fire (or simply enjoying the modern marvel of central heating). If you are like us, chances are you are already in the process of decorating your home for the holidays. Multiple strings of lights and decorations will bedeck your home inside and out.
Before you dive in too deep on plugging in all those light, we want to give you a quick warning that you may want to check your electrical panel. The reason why we are offering this word of caution is that the wrong string of lights could overload your electrical panel and cause a decent amount of trouble.
If you aren’t in the mood to deal with electrical trouble this holiday season, our advice to be to find out what you need to be cautious of and what you can do to keep this month free of unwanted sparks.
As the seasons change and the weather cools, we all start plugging things in. During fall and winter, we actually plug in a lot of things. From hair dryers to electric blankets to additional lights to moving Halloween decorations, your plugs are probably seeing a lot of use.
The short answer to this is, “yes.” And the reason the answer is “yes” is because if you’re still using a fuse box in your home, it is outdated—homes built after the 1960’s no longer use them and there is likely much more of electrical demand on your home now.
When remodeling your home, there are so many factors to take into consideration. For instance, if the renovation includes your kitchen, you have not only appliances and cabinetry to think about, but also your plumbing fixtures and lighting. Or if you’re redoing a family room, you may need to do some rewiring to move an entertainment system.
It’s no secret that this time of the year, energy bills are high. This is particularly true if you have an electric furnace or some other type of electric heating system. But there is the standard “higher bill” during this time of the year, and there are electrical bills that are far beyond the scope of what you’d imagine it should be.
The holiday season is well upon us, and if you are like many homeowners in our area, you are likely decorating your home, if you haven’t done so already. Quite often, this means putting up holiday lights in and around your home.
With winter well on its way, you probably are thinking about a lot of different things—the holiday season, your kids getting out of school for winter break, if you scheduled maintenance for your heating system yet, and if your generator is ready in case there’s a power outage.
Hopefully, you already understand how important it is to have a functional smoke detector, a.k.a fire alarm, in each room of your house. This isn’t just one of those “good idea to have” kind of things—it is absolutely essential to the safety of your family and the protection of your valuables.
With the exception of 1 day a month when you pay your electric bill, chances are that you don’t give a lot of thought to your electrical system at all. In fact, you may even take it for granted, absentmindedly plumbing in items like your hair dryer, phone, and laptop charger all at once, never expecting that it will be an issue.