Avoid overloading your home’s electrical system

We often think about our overloaded schedules or our plates, but what about our home’s electrical system? Overloading the circuits in our home is sometimes not as obvious as cramming too many events on our calendar or overfilling our ice cream bowl, but can be dangerous to our families and cause damages to our homes.

An overload simply means you have too many things running on one or more electrical circuits or pathways in your home, and there is more demand than supply. When this happens, it can cause a minor inconvenience like damage to an appliance, or a major one like a power outage or a fire.

To prevent overloading circuits, consider the following tips offered by Access Energy Cooperative and Safe Electricity:

• Don’t plug too many things in by using extension cords, power strips and multi-outlet converters. Overdoing it can overload and overheat a circuit.
• Be on the lookout for loose connections or damaged or corroded wires, which can also cause an overload or fire.
• If you continually upgrade your home with more lighting, appliances, and electronics, your home’s circuits may not be able to handle the increased load.
• Do not plug in multiple devices or appliances into an outlet at the same time, exceeding the outlet’s capacity. Do not use extension cords with major appliances.

Consult an electrician if you notice the following:

• Warm or discolored outlets or outlet cover plates
• Flickering, dimming or blinking lights or any other strange lighting behavior
• Items in your home frequently cause a mild shock
• Other strange happenings like a burning odor that has no source or unusual sounds coming from outlets
• Fuses that blow or trip frequently

Do what you can to avoid overloading the circuits in your home. Although the majority of a home’s electrical system is out of sight, out of mind, don’t take overload symptoms lightly and consult an electrician with concerns.

For more information about electrical safety, visit SafeElectricity.org.