Watch this safety video on Electrical Connections to get an idea about how unsafe your home might be. Call us for an Electrical Inspection Today!

A faulty wire can start a fire.

Electrical fires usually happen at connections within the wiring in the house.  Your connections are located in all your devices, whether it be an outlet, switch, a light fixture or a junction box – at any place there is a spliced wire connection.  In these connections, current goes through the wires and creates heat which, in turn, causes the wiring connection to expand.  When you are not using electricity, the wires cool down and contract.  Over time, the connections will loosen up.  These loosened connections will begin to create an electrical arc which, in turn, creates a very high heat situation for a brief period of time and starts to burn the insulation around the wires.  As time progresses, the insulation in the wires becomes more and more damaged, allowing the heat to move into the surrounding areas and, eventually cause a fire.

The cure is to rebuild all the connections by tightening them up and, if appropriate, rewiring the connections into a safer style connection to assist in preventing this problem from reoccurring.

One of the connection types located in most homes is the back-stabbed connection.  Houses with this type of connection are actually wired like Christmas tree lights in what is called a series or daisy-chain connection.  This type of connection is the biggest contributor to overheating circuits and resulting in house fires.

During a typical year, home electrical problems account for 67,800 fires, 485 deaths, and $868 Million in property losses.  Every homeowner should routinely have their home wiring checked for safe connections, frayed wires, and bad connections.  All dangerous wiring situations must be repaired ASAP.

As the above video indicates, there are many problem situations in most homes which the lay-person does not recognize as a safety hazard.  At Lon Lockwood Electric, we have your safety as our primary goal, and, so we implore you, have a professional electrician come into your home and evaluate your wiring for safety.  Please!  While we would love it if you call us to do the work, we feel that your safety comes before anything else – so call a professional today!