Common Electrical Faults That May Happen in Your Home

It is dreadful to think of electrical faults happening in your own home. This is primarily because of the danger it brings, such as injuries and even house fire. Also, electrical faults damage appliances and will cause you a high amount of money.

The safety of anyone at your home is paramount. And the best course of action is to identify what are the frequent electrical faults that can happen in your home. Seeking help from authorised professional electricians can help you with these problems.

Identifying what the common electric faults are and what causes them can help you avoid future mishaps. To attain this goal, here are some of the common electrical faults at home you need to know.

Power Surges

There are some instances when electrical surge or transients occur. Electrical surges happen when there’s a massive jump of voltage in the power line, thus increasing your electric current on the outlet. It happens for split seconds, but it can damage any electrical appliances in your home.

Different situations cause an electrical surge. When you see flashes of lightning in the clouds, it can trigger an electrical surge. The massive lightning bolt can reach up to one billion volts of electricity and surely causes flickering of your light bulbs.

Also, surges in the electricity happen because of the damage to the power lines, faulty appliances and electrical wiring issues in the house. Frequent surges in the electric current might cause significant damage to most of your devices at home.

Brownout in Power

The voltage dips or brownout can happen when there is a reduction in voltage from 10% or more. It occurs when voltage is below of the recommended usage; for instance, an outlet’s 240-volt drops to 216 volts.

It can also cause damages to the appliances in your home like an electric surge. You might observe that when you open your oven, the light dims in the room. The dip in electricity is opposite of electrical surge–a quick, rapid decrease in terms of voltage.

Circuit Breaker Frequent Tripping

The circuit breaker protects your cables and wirings through opening circuits due to detected faults. When your circuit breaker trips, it’s a sign of protecting your home from danger. There are three reasons why a circuit breaker trips in your home.

1. Circuit overload- Many homes cannot cater to their increasing demand for power. And when the electric circuit carries more current than it can handle, there is a risk of overheating and fire.
2. Short circuit- The deterioration of wires and faulty appliances can trigger short circuit. The live wire might touch a neutral wire, resulting in a higher current that the circuit breaker cannot handle. 
3. Ground fault- It happens when electricity finds an unplanned path to the ground. This is more likely to occur in wet areas like the kitchen and bathroom from faulty wiring and appliances. 

Flickering or Dimming Lights

Observe sometimes that your bedroom is too brightly while the light outside your garage is too dim. This is either due to different wattage of lights or bad main neutral connection. The sign of poor connection like this could result in sparking, overheating, and fire.

Warm Outlets or Switches

Aside from a dimming switch, the warming of regular switches is a severe electrical fault at home. Also, warm outlets could be a sign of a bad wiring connection. Problems with outlets and switches are critical as it might cause injuries and fire.

Dead Outlets

The dead outlets at home is a common electrical fault. A poor connection or tripped wiring can melt wires in the outlets due to excessive heat buildup.

Frequent Light Blowouts

If you’re experiencing frequent bulb blowouts, you may have a loose connection in the socket or circuit. It happens when the light wattage is too high or due to bad wiring to the circuit and mains. Whatever causes this, you can turn it off and let a professional electrician handle it.

Electric Shock

Electric shocks are common in homes with old electrical system. An electric shock is an unpleasant experience due to an electrical fault. You might touch an appliance with poor insulation or isn’t grounded, and electricity passes through the body to cause a shock.

The shock reminds everyone of how dangerous electricity can be. Speaking on its risks, numerous things are causing electric shock such as power leakage, faulty appliances, backstabbed wires and so on. When experiencing electric shocks at home, finding an authorised electrician is the best option to avoid further danger.

Conclusion

The different common electrical defaults have various negative impacts. Aside from it damages any devices and appliances, the electrical faults can result in higher electric bills. But we avoid the worst– the faults can cause severe injury or fatality.

Electrical faults can happen as a result of poor installations or regular wear-and-tear. There are common signs of electrical faults such as excessive load on wires and circuit. Also, improper wiring and grounding can lead to faults.

Sydney Inner West Electricians is the best team to seek when it comes to common electric faults. Our team consists of trusted and authorised electricians that can efficiently handle any electrical faults at your home. We aim to provide proper electrical installations and best service to prevent further mishaps.

You can call us at (02) 8378 2829 with reliable level 2 electricians giving you a free quote today. We make sure that we can provide you with good installation and connection of electrics for a safer and comfortable home.