Lighting

• If your lights flicker or turn off and then on for some unknown reason, don’t believe your home is haunted! This is a sign of loose wire connections either at the light itself, the switch or at the home panel. It may also be a sign of a broken wire. Ensure your lighting terminations are tight, properly grounded and that the switches which control the lights are connected and seated properly in the recessed handy box. Make sure your terminal connections are not touching any bare metal.

Outlets

• Check for outlets that have loose-fitting plugs, which can overheat and lead to fire.
• Replace any missing or broken outlets.
• Make sure there are safety covers on all unused outlets that are accessible to children.
• Replace broken 2 prong outlets with 2 prong outlets (not 3prong) OR to make this ungrounded outlet safe and bring it up to NEC code, replace with a tamper proof GFCI. This safety feature is especially good for homes with small children.

Extension Cords

• Check to see that extension cords are not overloaded & only be used on a temporary basis, not as permanent wiring.
• Make sure extension cords have safety closures to help protect children from shock hazards and mouth burns.

Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCIs)

GFCIs can help prevent electrocution. When a GFCI senses current leakage in an electrical circuit, it assumes a ground fault has occurred. It then interrupts power fast enough to help prevent serious injury from electric shock. GFCIs can be installed at the outlet or as a replacement for the circuit breaker for an entire circuit at the fuse box.

• Kitchen
• Bathrooms
• Garage
• Laundry room
• Outdoors
• Anywhere there is not a grounded circuit!

Light Bulbs

• Replace bulbs that have higher wattage than recommended: if you don't know the correct wattage, check with the manufacturer of the fixture.
• **LED LIGHT BULBS WILL GREATLY REDUCE YOUR ELECTRIC BILL AND ARE SOLD AT EVERY HOME DEPOT

Circuit Breakers/Fuses

• Make sure circuit breakers and fuses are the correct size current rating for their circuit. If you do not know the correct size, have an electrician identify and label the size to be used. Always replace a fuse with the correctly specified size fuse.
• Avoid overloading outlets/circuits with too many appliances.

Maximum amount of amperage is 80% of what is labeled on the breaker.

For example, you can use no more than 16 amps on a 20 amp breaker and 12 amps on a 15 amp breaker. This will help to prevent overloading the breaker. Overloading a breaker will cause the breaker to trip, eventually damaging the breaker which would need to be replaced. In some cases this can be costly.