The holiday season is upon us. If you’re like many homeowners in the area, you may be decorating your home, inside and out. Quite often, this includes putting holiday lights up and around your home.
One of the most common calls received by our professional electricians in Cedar Falls, IA this time of year is in regards to certain outlets throughout the home not working—this may include your bathroom outlets, garage, or outdoor outlets. And the most common reason for this problem is that outdoor holiday lights have tripped a GFCI outlet or circuit breaker within your home.
Many, if not most, homeowners assume that power surges come from stormy weather, and that alone. But this is not actually the case. Power surges come from the appliances in your home, and in recent years, as we have become increasingly reliant on electronic devices and high efficiency appliances, we’ve increased our own risk of power surges. And they post a more serious threat than many realize, to appliances, electronics, and homes in general.
When you think about the landscaping of your home, what comes to mind? If you’re like the average homeowner, the types of flowers and trees you’ll plant, and whether you’ll go with grass, or some type of wood chip or rock ground foundation is probably also a consideration.
Is your home as safe and secure as possible? Sure, you keep the front door locked, you have a basic security system, and maybe you even have a dog whose bark you hope will scare burglars away quick enough that they discover the dog really just wants to lick them to death.
There are a good deal of homeowners who believe they can go without whole-house surge protection, or don’t even think about it at all. If you’re one of those homeowners, we urge you to read on and learn about why this is so important. Within the last couple of decades, we have all become more and more dependent on electronic devices and high efficiency appliances. When you couple this with inclement weather—particularly thunderstorms—the risk of power surges increase.
Have you ever been away from home for an extended period of time, or even just at work for the day, and thought to yourself, “I’d really like to check in on my house”? We’ve all been there. At some time or another, you’ve likely wondered if you left the lights on unintentionally, kept your HVAC system going for too long, or even forgot to lock your front door.
With springtime here and the subsequent warmer weather following, many homeowners are considering renovation and remodeling projects for 2017. There are many household projects that make great “do-it-yourself” endeavors, however, we of course highly recommend against this if any electrical work is involved. One of the 