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Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this How Stuff Works article:
Club, Fix-It. "How to Do Home Electrical Repairs." 02 May 2006. HowStuffWorks.com. <http://home.howstuffworks.com/how-to-do-home-electrical-repairs.htm> 15 May 2008.
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Fix-It Club
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Electrical Safety Tips
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Electrical Safety Tips
Some home electrical repairs require a licensed electrician, but the repair or replacement of many electrical components can be done by a do-it-yourselfer. Make safety your first priority, and you'll be amazed at what you can do to maintain and upgrade the electrical devices in your home.All electrical devices and electrical wires are designed to provide the greatest measure of electrical safety, but you can defeat any built-in safeguards with carelessness and ignorance. To work safely with electricity, be aware of the following hazards and precautions:
- Never do anything that would break the conductor's insulation. Do not, for example, staple an extension cord to a baseboard or wall. The staple can cut through the insulation and create a short circuit, which, in turn, can start a fire. Moreover, you should examine all wiring regularly and discard any cord with brittle insulation. Replace the old cord with a new one that has good insulation.
©2006 Publications International, Ltd.
Examine wiring regularly for safety reasons. Replace cords
that have brittle or damaged insulation.
- Turn the power off before replacing a receptacle or a switch or doing any other work on a circuit. If your system operates with fuses, remove the fuse for the circuit you're working on and slip it into your pocket or toolbox. If you leave it nearby, someone might put the fuse back in while you're working on the circuit. If your home's electrical system uses circuit breakers, trip the appropriate circuit breaker to its OFF position. Then, to make sure no one accidentally flips the circuit breaker back on while you're working, put a piece of tape and a sign over the circuit breaker's handle telling people what you're doing.
- When you work on an electrical circuit, make all wire joints and connections inside an approved electrical box. There are several ways to join wires, but the best way is to use solderless connectors of either the crimp-on or screw-on wirenut kind. Never connect wires together in a behind-the-wall or in-the-ceiling location that is not accessible by simply opening an electrical box. In addition, when joining insulated wires to one another or when fastening them under terminal screws, make sure no uninsulated or bare wire extends beyond the connection. The insulation should go right up to the solderless connector or terminal screw.
©2006 Publications International, Ltd.
One of the best ways to join wires is to use solderless connectors called
wirenuts. Twist the conductor ends together, and screw the wirenut
into the twisted ends. Make sure no bare conductor is exposed.
- Everyone in the family should know where and how to throw the master switch that cuts off all electrical current.
- If there's a chance of contact between water and electricity, do not wade in water until the master switch has been shut off.
- Always assume an electrical receptacle or apparatus is energized until you prove otherwise with a circuit tester or by pulling a fuse or tripping the disconnect plug.
- Use only insulated pliers when working with electricity.
- Stand on a dry board or wooden platform when working with a fuse box or circuit breaker box. Also, use a wooden rather than an aluminum stepladder to minimize the risk of shock when working with electrical wiring.
- You can save time by determining which electrical circuits activate which receptacles in your home and then diagramming or printing the information inside the circuit breaker or fuse box.
Proper grounding of your electrical system is essential to your safety. Electricity always follows the path of least resistance, and that path could be you whenever an appliance or another electrical component is not grounded.
Grounding directs electrical energy into the earth by providing a conductor that is less resistant than you are. This is accomplished by attaching one end of the wire to the frame of an appliance and fastening the other end to a coldwater pipe. Most plastic-coated electrical cable contains a bare wire, which carries the grounded connection to every electrical box, receptacle, and appliance in your home. You can usually tell whether your electrical system is grounded by checking the receptacles. If you have the kind that accepts plugs with two blades and one prong, your system should have three wires, one of which is a grounding wire. The prong carries the safety ground to the metal frame of any appliance that has a three-wire plug and cord.
An appliance's metal frame can pose a safety hazard to you and your family. If a power cord's insulation wears away just at the point where the cord enters the metal frame, contact between the metal current conductor and the metal frame could make the whole appliance alive with electricity. Touching a charged metal frame of the appliance while simultaneously touching a water faucet or a radiator will make the current surge through you.
There are other places throughout the electrical system where conductor/metal contact is a distinct possibility and a safety hazard. Be sure to inspect, maintain, and make repairs wherever wires enter a metal pipe (conduit), where the cord enters a lamp or lamp socket, and where in-wall cable enters an electrical box. Surfaces at these points must be free of burrs that could chafe the wire and damage its insulation. Washers and grommets protect the wire at these various points of entry. However, the best thing you can do to ensure a safe electrical system is to make sure the whole system is grounded and the ground circuit is electrically continuous, without any breaks.
The bottom line is that you need to make electrical safety a top priority whenever you do home repairs. Furthermore, don't hesitate to call on a professional electrician when necessary.
On the next page, we'll take a look at how to restore a circuit and what steps you should take in a power outage.
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Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this How Stuff Works article:
Club, Fix-It. "How to Do Home Electrical Repairs." 02 May 2006. HowStuffWorks.com. <http://home.howstuffworks.com/how-to-do-home-electrical-repairs.htm> 15 May 2008.
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