What Emergency Electrical Repairs Entail: Tips From Your Emergency Electrician | Wilmington, NC
Photo By marekuliasz at Shutterstock
At around 8: 30 pm on 22 November 2021, firefighters responded to a residential fire in Wilmington, NC. WECT TV station, an NBC affiliate TV station licensed to Wilmington, featured the fire incident. Five days before, a similar fire incident had been reported and there was a casualty. Incidences of electrical fires are on the rise in Wilmington, NC, indicating a crisis in electrical fires management in North Carolina.
According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), over 20 percent of electrical fires occur when people are asleep. This can be attributed to the fact that people have low blood pressure and temperature at night, are often in a deep sleep, are inactive, and their degree of responsiveness to firefighting emergencies is low. It could also be a primary reason why home fires are on the rise.
Despite these fire hazards, homeowners can be enlightened on basic routine checks and types of electrical repairs and services that their emergency electrician can occasionally perform in their homes to avert the spread of electrical fires.
Below are some of the emergency electrical repairs that an emergency electrician can encounter in their line of duty.
Electrical Wiring Corrections
Loose wire connections or improperly done cabling can interfere with electricity flow in the house. Wires occasionally expand and contract, leading to normal wear and tear. Loosely fastened cable connections at switches, sockets, outlets, or fixtures can trigger electrical fires and need electricians to repair them before any fires occur.
All your emergency electrician will be doing when such an issue occurs is as follows. You will notice them assembling their standard tools, including voltage tester, flashlight, utility knife, and eye protector. Next, your electrician will switch off the main power supply to the unit.
Then the technician will detach the electrical tapes from the wire. If the wire ends are damaged, your technician will remove a more significant chunk of the insulation to merge connectivity better. Alternatively, your electrician may trim off the excess wire or snip off extra insulation so that the required amount of wire remains.
Electric Surges Rectifications
Electronics that massively utilize abnormal high energy often cause electrical surges. A surge is a sudden spike in voltage to your electrical sockets. The forceful surge of power may cause overheating and breakdown of appliances. It may also damage circuit boards and delicate electronic components.
Power surges are caused mainly by lightning strikes, short circuits, blackouts, tripped circuit breakers, poor wiring, and power supplier breakdowns. To deal with these surges, your emergency electrician will often advise you to install surge protection, reduce high energy electronics, conceal exposed wires, and reduce overloaded outlets.
Adjusting Flickering Light Bulbs, Fixtures, and Dimming Lamps
Flickering bulbs and dimming lamps is another common electrical repair that can occasionally call for an emergency electrician. Such lighting disorders can scorch sockets and melt insulation wires. Sparks, if spotted, is an indication of loose connection issues and, if uncontrolled, may progress to the outlet or circuit and cause fires.
If you hire an electrician to repair this issue, they should replace your worn-out receptacles, change your bulb filament, tighten your bulb or adjust your voltage.
Inspecting and Fixing Loss of Power in Outlets
Lost electrical power to outlets in your home can be caused by tripped circuit breakers, blown-up fuses, multiple cable circuits, and faulty electronics. Your emergency electrician can detect the defective circuit and sort the electrical issue with a simple hand tool and a voltage tester.
The electrical expert should switch the power to the outlet, insert the voltage tester, and disengage the faceplates or wall brackets. If the electrical box isn’t safely placed, your technician can securely place it in its proper place to avoid backstabbed wires that can expose live cables and cause electrocution.
Your emergency electrician should know where the GFCI Trip is and analyze each GFCI outlet for any abnormalities. If there are electronics that are lodged into extension cords, your electrician should unplug them. Your electrical expert should then test your electrical wires and check your circuit breaker and wiring to confirm that everything is working.
Occasionally, your electrician may not have a precise knowledge of how all the electrical circuits sit in your house, so they may sometimes need to refer extreme cases to the main power company for extreme electricity issues. Such cases are rare, but if they happen, they should not take you by surprise.
Final Thoughts
Calling an emergency electrician to repair your electrical issues might be the first response any homeowner in Wilmington, NC might take. This is a good step. However, homeowners should proactively be involved in the process as well and think of their safety.
First of all, any homeowner in Wilmington, NC, should moderate the usage of appliances like washing machines, instant hot showers, microwaves, and dishwashers that crazily drain electricity bills.
Secondly, individuals should not use devices past their prime time as this decreases their efficiency, poses serious safety issues, and can harm the environment.
Thirdly, from the initial stages of electrical installation, individuals should hire certified electrical technicians who have intellectual competence, ethical proficiency, technical aptitude, and a safety-first mindset.
Lastly, homeowners should be keen to check, smell, and look out for any warning signals of electrical issues before they occur. Unplugging extension cables, chargers, and electronic devices from main switches will save on costs and prevent electrical repairs in the long run.
Mister Sparky of Wilmington: Your Electrical Expert
Mister Sparky of Wilmington is a well-known electrical company located at 3232 Kitty Hawk Road. We deal with all electrical and wiring issues. Our electricians offer landscape lighting, appliance wiring, service upgrades, stand-by generators, panel installations, outlet wiring, circuit wiring, and ceiling fan repair. We provide free quotations for all your repairs.
We are your go-to supplier for electrical items like surge protectors, electrical inspectors, code violation corrections, arc-fault breakers, GFCI outlets, and smoke detectors. Call us today for your electrical needs, and we will give you excellent service. Our panel of emergency electricians is available 24 hours to respond to your needs.