Before You Call Your Electrician: Check These Electrical Issues
admin • March 12, 2018

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Electrical issues are no joke. It’s never, ever a good idea to ignore signs that you might have a problem with your electrical system. However, sometimes things are not quite as dire as they might seem at first. If you suspect that you might have an electrical issue, you should check the following things first before calling for an electrician.

Your Breaker Panel

If you have any issues with inconsistent current, lack of electrical flow, or other indications that the system isn’t providing enough electricity, you should have a look at your breaker panel before you do anything else. Make sure that all of the switches are flipped to the “on” position, and that nothing else looks out of the ordinary. If a switch has flipped on the circuit that’s giving you trouble, try flipping it back to the on position and see if that fixes the problem.

Note that if the circuit keeps tripping even after you reset it, then there may be something more seriously wrong with either the circuit or the panel itself. In those cases, it would be best to call an electrician to come take a look at the system as soon as possible.

Your Appliances

You’ve probably already ruled this one out, but if you haven’t it’s a good thing to check. Oftentimes, what appears to be an electrical issue is located in the appliance itself rather than the system. If you’re having issues with a flickering light, for example, you should try unplugging it first and plugging a different light into the same outlet to see what happens. If that solves the problem, then you probably don’t have anything else to worry about. If it doesn’t, you may have to have a professional take a look at the system for you.

Your Walls

If electrical current meets resistance, it vents some of its energy as heat. One way to check and see if there might be an electrical problem in your walls is to carefully feel around the area that’s experiencing the issue. If your lights don’t seem to be working, for example, feel the wall around the light switch and see if it feels unusually warm. If so, you might have an electrical issue that needs to be dealt with right away. Please note that in the specific case of dimmer switches, this is a bit different. Those switches are designed to run a bit hotter than normal on/off switches, so you shouldn’t panic unless they’re running really hot.

These steps can help you identify whether or not your electrical system is in need of professional services. There’s a pretty good chance that if your electrical system is experiencing some kind of issue, you’re going to need to have a professional electrician take care of it for you.

Anderson Electric Corp provides employs expert electricians in Summit, NJ. If you need any help with your electrical system, contact us today to schedule an appointment. We’ll make sure that your electrical system is kept in top condition.  

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