The Holidays and Electrical Safety

‘Estimates indicate home electrical problems cause 70,000 fires each year killing close to 500 people, injuring thousands more, and costing nearly a billion dollars in property damage. Aging electrical systems, combined with the growing power demands, contribute to electrical fire hazards. Taking simple safety precautions could prevent you from being one of the thousands of people injured or even killed by preventable electrical hazards each year.’

from… Shocking Holiday Statistics: New Electrical Safety Survey Shows How Consumers Often Put Themselves at Risk

Some simple things you can do to make your holidays a little safer.

1. Replace the batteries in your smoke detectors.
2. Plug inside holiday decorations into an outlet bar with built in circuit protection.
3. All outdoor lighting and connecting extension cords should be rated for outdoor use, suitable for wet locations and powered by GFCI protected circuits.
4. Make sure all cords are in good shape with no nicks, cuts and so forth.
5. Above all… use common sense.

It’s important to remember the decorations add an extra load to your homes electrical circuits. Plugging anything into a problem circuit is a recipe for disaster. Putting it in perspective. You have two lines of defense between yourself and an electrical fire. One is a circuit breaker or fuse the other is you. A circuit breaker is not intended to be tripped regularly and is your only mechanical line of defense. Except in the case of GFCI protected circuits. A circuit breaker or fuse is much like a pressure relief valve on a boiler. If steam pressure gets too high the only prevention to stop the boiler from exploding is the pressure relief valve. In an electrical circuit, when the current flow gets to unsafe levels, the breaker trips or the fuse blows preventing a catastrophic failure such as fire, electrocution, burns…. This doesn’t mean, keep resetting the breaker or changing fuses… it means you have a potentially hazardous problem. Electricity kills, destroys, and is one unforgiving SOB. Be careful and please use common sense. Don’t become a statistic!!!

Safe Electricity Urges Home Electrical Hazard Check-Ups
Electrical Safety for Kids

Be Safe!!!

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Adding to this post… If anyone would like to pass this little bit of info on to your readers… please feel free to do so. A link back is not necessary. If it helps keep one family safe, it was well worth the effort.