subject: Finding Electrical Faults In Your Home. [print this page] You might find this article helpful in tracking down wires and troubleshooting problems because the fundamental strategy in finding and fixing electrical problems is to discover a place where there is no problem and then keep splitting the distance between that point and the problem point.
When working with any electrical problem, amplify your safety by taking simple safeguards. Turn off the breakers to any region in which you are working. Use an outlet tester to validate that the power is really off before touching any cables. Electrical repairs are more fun during the daylight hours. Trying to squeeze in an electrical repair in the late afternoon or evening can make for a long night of juggling torches, extension cables, ladders and tools. Waiting 18 hours to start the following morning is probably the best idea.
When installing a switch, make sure it is on the correct conductor. You dont want to be installing a light fixture with a switch on the neutral wire. If you are lucky, when you turn the breaker on, all that happens is that it will trip and frighten you. Renewing existing parts is generally straightforward enough but, place things back the way you found them and you should be okay. Then again, adding new equipment can be a more difficult task to take on. Be exceptionally cautious with any wires that arent white, grey or green. In one home that I worked in, some extremely strange electrical work (probably not done by an electrician). I had the horrible shock of locating cut (but not capped) black and red wires. I think they were most likely planned for a hot tub installment. I carried out a quick test on them only to find out that they were indeed live giving out 220 volts. Frightening to say the least!
My advise is that if you have questions on this subject matter, at least visit a book store or do some research on the world wide web and buy or read the NEC guide for residential wiring. An electrician may cost you some money, but a do-it-yourself repair could cost you your property and/or your life.
Deliberations about the finest brand names of equipment can get extremely heated, with well meaning people holding very firm ideas. My own personal feeling on this subject is that it is basically almost not possible to know for sure which is best. Even with the wherewithal of a full testing lab, the manufacturing and design specifications alter so frequently, that the results are out of date sooner than publication. If you happen to come across a sale where you can buy some other brand name for less, then by all means do it.
The right tools can make the job go a good deal more rapidly. However many brand name tools are costly and there are lots of options. There are always trade-offs between price and quality. If you don't have the experience, it can be awfully hard standing in the hardware store trying to figure out what you really need. My main objective with this article is to enlighten people to this one major tip, if you are not sure about what you are doing with electrics then leave well alone and hire an electrician.
Finding a respectable competent electrician is quite often done by word of mouth, hunting in the yellow pages, or searching on the internet. Various times whilst you are looking for a licensed and insured electrician you will ask acquaintances and family for a recommendation. Which is a good way to find a reliable electrician or electrical service provider. If you have a recommendation you can without difficulty verify to see if the electrician has a license, insurance or any complaints about him by checking with your area board of licensing. If they do not have any complaints, the next thing to check is what services they offer.
This can be completed by looking on the World wide web to observe if the electrician has a site which lists all of their qualifications and services offered. Many electricians also advertise in the yellow pages and catalog their services. You want an electrician that can do all of the work you require doing without contracting out to an additional business. If you find an electrician on the net in your locale, you can ask for information regarding a certain service if they have a contact page. This is common practice with the Online nowadays. If you require any type of electrical work done, you need an qualified and insured electrician that has a good record for completing work up to the accepted standards.
A decent electrician will not identify your difficulty over the phone. The professional electrician will come to your residence to troubleshoot the difficulty while explaining to you what they are doing. You want to contact an electrical services company that will give you an quote for the work before beginning. It might be better to get a few quotes if you want to find a decent electrician. Going with the least expensive quote is not always going to indicate quality work. This is a very important point to keep in mind when hunting for a qualified electrician or electrical contractor to complete all the work you require to have completed.
