One of the parts when it comes to home maintenance is getting your electrical wiring checked. It goes without saying that having good wiring in your home is essential. If something is off, you can set your house on fire, which is why it is important to check the electricity and make sure everything is on the right track.
This is the biggest issue and thankfully, such occasions are rare. Some of the problems that might occur include not having light in a room, or your fridge not working, your boiler not working, etc. With electricity, it is not enough to just set up the fuse box and fit the wires and call it a day.
Doing safety inspections from time to time should ensure that you prevent potential problems instead of fixing them after they happen.
In this article, we will talk about how often you should inspect get an electrical check and some aspects that you should pay attention to.
Get an electrical check for your house every 3-5 years
There are various factors when it comes to checking the wires around your home. The first one and the most important would be how old your home is. Of course, living in a house that has just been built versus living in a 20-30 year old home is a huge difference. The quality of wires has improved and they can last longer now without causing any problems.
In addition, the new wires are just that – New – and you have nothing to worry about. But, on average, you should perform an inspection every 3-5 years, just to make sure everything is running properly. This isn’t that common and you can find electricians that are efficient at checking this out.
For example, when you experience an electrical problem in your home, we suggest contacting electricians such as https://www.vitalityelectric.com/
Other than the regular fixes, you can ask them if they can perform the electrical check and finish a few things at once.
Technology and Old Electrical Systems
There’s one thing that we would love to point out, especially for those people who are living in older homes with an electrical system that is considered a bit outdated. While it may be working perfectly, all of us now have a bunch of appliances and electronics that we didn’t use to plug in.
Some of the standard appliances include washing machines, but now most homes have dish washing machines, dryers, powerful PCs that are working non-stop and other devices.
You basically need a sound electrical system to support all of this, which is why checking it regularly and making necessary modifications to it is crucial.
Our advice is to stay mindful of the electricity you use on a daily basis and adjust your electrical system to fit your lifestyle, or the other way around.
Signs that You Need an Inspection
With regular inspections, you can get away with major breakdowns, but you can spot on some signs that indicate that it’s high time you’ve called an electrician.
• These include
• Fuses blowing
• Switches not functioning
• Lights flickering after you replace them
Having 2-pronged outlets instead of 3-pronged
The list above shows the common things you might experience if something is wrong with an electrical system. Having said that, pay attention if something happens when you plug in a new device, or if you keep changing your bulbs stubbornly and they keep burning out.
Of course, there might be some other issues that we didn’t cover here, but these are really common when something is wrong with your wiring network.
Use a Multimeter to Perform Checks
We understand that sometimes hiring an electrician could be expensive, especially considering that checking your wires isn’t really a must. There are always more pressing things when we allocate our finances, but once you set your mind to it, you should have these regular checks by an expert.
If you are unable, for one reason or the other, to get an electrician to your home, you can do these checks easily by yourself. But, you will need a multimeter.
This is the device that we help you check for voltage. In almost the entire world, the standard is 230V, while in the USA, it is 120V. Setting the multimeter to that number and plugging the probes into the multimeter, while putting the other ends into the holes of one of your sockets should give you the reads.
NOTE: Take the safety precautions when you are doing this because doing something improperly may result in your death!
If one of the reads isn’t the number you want to see -230v or 120v, then you can tell that there’s something wrong with your system. At that time, you should call an electrician.
We always advise not to do the repairs by yourself. On the other hand, these checks are easy to do and everybody can perform them. But as we have already said, take the safety measures and be careful not to rush it.
Finding The Right Electrician
Finding the right electrician can take a bit more time than you anticipated. First of all, they have a lot of work in the field and it is hard for them to predict how long certain fixes will last considering that there always me be more problems lurking behind.
Therefore, when you plan to do a checkup, make sure you call them and ask when they are available. This can be in the upcoming days, weeks or even the next month! That’s why it is important to plan things in advance. Otherwise, you may be stuck with some wiring problems, but they cannot arrive the moment you call them.
In a nutshell, regular electricity checks help you keep your home’s wiring network healthy.
It is much better to change things up and prevent problems than to solve them as they show up.
