Electrical Grounding And Simple Ways To Ensure Electrical Safety Of Your Home

One of the most common ways used to increase safety in homes and to prevent damage to electrical appliances is through grounding. This allows excess electricity from appliances to flow to the ground through an earth rod rather than causing harmful surges that would destroy electronics, cause fires or result in even deadly electrical shocks to humans and pets.

For your home to be considered properly grounded, there has to be a physical connection between the ground and the entire home's electrical wiring. In a well-grounded home, excess or misdirected electrical current generated by appliances such as refrigerators, microwaves, TVs and iron boxes gets transferred harmlessly to the ground via the round third prong installed on the device's electrical cord.

Is your home properly grounded?

Having a ground connection in your home is very essential, and most modern homes have a grounding connection in place due to building safety regulations. However, older homes may not be grounded at all, which is a recipe for many potential dangers.

Even if your home is grounded, it only takes a single bad connection to render the system potentially useless, leaving your family and electronics with no protection against power surges. To ensure your home is safe, hire a qualified local electrician to inspect your grounding system or put one in place.

Homes in suburban areas are more at risk of electrical grounding issues due to the high electrical demand in such areas, which causes periodic power overloading problems that can injure home inhabitants and wear down electronics. Luckily, electrical inspections can help unearth grounding issues, ensuring that corrective measures are taken before anything goes wrong. And, if your home's appliances are affected by a power surge, you can contact a service like Collier County Appliance Service, Inc. to help quickly remedy the problem.

Other measure to prevent electrical shocks and fires

To begin with, ensure your home is equipped with a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter that cuts off power supply in case of any electricity 'leaks' from your home appliances. This safety device can reduce the risk of electrical shocks in wet areas such as the kitchen, garage, laundry room and bathroom.

In addition, routinely check electrical cords for breaks in their cords. Cords that do not fit properly into electrical outlets or those that overheat, sparks, short out or smoke should be checked out and repaired by an electrician as soon as possible.

Another important thing to remember is never to overload electrical outlets including extension cords and wall sockets with appliances, as this can make them short out and start a fire. Should you need more electrical outlets, it is well worth the money to have an electrician install them correctly.