alignment:

Electrical Woes

Electrical fires are not something to aspire to

Thu., Feb 22

As some of you know, we've had two electrical "issues" at our house in the past month, and they have raised my awareness of fire and "BAD THINGS".

The first issue was when I went to plug in a heater to an outlet. That outlet was fairly old, and always felt "sloppy" when things were plugged in, but this time I heard a crackling noise also (like someone crinkling paper). I knew this wasn't good so I unplugged everything from that outlet, and had Tim (my electrician) look at it. It turns out that the connections weren't tight, so electricity was "arcing" (jumping) between wires. When this happens, there are sparks. When sparks happen fires start. There's a decent chance that had I not called an electrician this would have caused a fire in the kids bedroom. In addition the cord on the heater that was plugged into this outlet was partially melted due to the arcing, and had to be replaced.

A couple of weeks later I turned on a light in the kids bedroom one morning and the light didn't go on. It tried another light, and it didn't work. Since the whole room was out I assumed it was a circuit. An hour later when Christine got up I told her I wanted to go out and flip the circuit breaker, and she said "why, the header is on in the room and the lights are on"? I felt like electricity that only worked "sometimes" was also a bad thing, so I called an electrician, and didn't use electricity in that room until he came around.

It turns out that one of the junctions in the basement had the wrong size "wire nut" and there were too many wires in it. Because copper expands and contracts, when temp got cold the copper shrunk, the wires no longer touched, and stopped working... When the weather is warm they worked fine.

The danger is the in-between. When the wires "almost" touch they "arc". Tim brought me the little piece of the electrical tape from around this junction and it smelled burned. I then had him go through and check some other things in the basement as well as my bathroom and he found some other loose wires which he tightened, and he also added a box in our bathroom behind our light fixture. Apparently those boxes you put electrical outlets in aren't just for show. They're designed to help keep a fire contained, should it happen. While this second issue was much less likely to create a fire short term, long term the risk was still very real.

I'm going to have the electrician come back and do some other cleanup, but some thoughts he shared with me which might be useful to other people:

Don't EVER plug an electric heater (or other powerful item like AC unit, or fridge) into an extension cord.
If outlets feel "sloppy" replace them.
Tighten, tighten tighten. He's been in people's circuit boxes before, and found that over time connections just become loose (expand and contract). It only takes him 2 minutes to tighten every connection there, and it can save a house.
If you have to use an extension cord, don't use one of those little white or brown ones... Get a heavy one. That's why so many more houses burn down around Christmas time every year.
Use as few extension cords as possible.
Make sure there aren't things bumping into your outlets (couches/beds/dressers). They do make extension cords which go "down" instead of out, specifically for instances

Home News Max Pictures Charlie Grace Ian and beyond (fall 2007) Travel Pictures Directions Mailing List Sign Up: sign up for our email mailing list: [ submit ]		alignment: Electrical Woes Electrical fires are not something to aspire to Thu., Feb 22 As some of you know, we've had two electrical "issues" at our house in the past month, and they have raised my awareness of fire and "BAD THINGS". The first issue was when I went to plug in a heater to an outlet. That outlet was fairly old, and always felt "sloppy" when things were plugged in, but this time I heard a crackling noise also (like someone crinkling paper). I knew this wasn't good so I unplugged everything from that outlet, and had Tim (my electrician) look at it. It turns out that the connections weren't tight, so electricity was "arcing" (jumping) between wires. When this happens, there are sparks. When sparks happen fires start. There's a decent chance that had I not called an electrician this would have caused a fire in the kids bedroom. In addition the cord on the heater that was plugged into this outlet was partially melted due to the arcing, and had to be replaced. A couple of weeks later I turned on a light in the kids bedroom one morning and the light didn't go on. It tried another light, and it didn't work. Since the whole room was out I assumed it was a circuit. An hour later when Christine got up I told her I wanted to go out and flip the circuit breaker, and she said "why, the header is on in the room and the lights are on"? I felt like electricity that only worked "sometimes" was also a bad thing, so I called an electrician, and didn't use electricity in that room until he came around. It turns out that one of the junctions in the basement had the wrong size "wire nut" and there were too many wires in it. Because copper expands and contracts, when temp got cold the copper shrunk, the wires no longer touched, and stopped working... When the weather is warm they worked fine. The danger is the in-between. When the wires "almost" touch they "arc". Tim brought me the little piece of the electrical tape from around this junction and it smelled burned. I then had him go through and check some other things in the basement as well as my bathroom and he found some other loose wires which he tightened, and he also added a box in our bathroom behind our light fixture. Apparently those boxes you put electrical outlets in aren't just for show. They're designed to help keep a fire contained, should it happen. While this second issue was much less likely to create a fire short term, long term the risk was still very real. I'm going to have the electrician come back and do some other cleanup, but some thoughts he shared with me which might be useful to other people: Don't EVER plug an electric heater (or other powerful item like AC unit, or fridge) into an extension cord. If outlets feel "sloppy" replace them. Tighten, tighten tighten. He's been in people's circuit boxes before, and found that over time connections just become loose (expand and contract). It only takes him 2 minutes to tighten every connection there, and it can save a house. If you have to use an extension cord, don't use one of those little white or brown ones... Get a heavy one. That's why so many more houses burn down around Christmas time every year. Use as few extension cords as possible. Make sure there aren't things bumping into your outlets (couches/beds/dressers). They do make extension cords which go "down" instead of out, specifically for instances


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