If you live in an older home, it means you have older components within it. This includes your electrical wiring! Something our electricians manage a lot is the rewiring of aging homes that have outdated systems. This not only helps keep your property up to code, but also protects the safety of your home and your family.
But how would you even know if you need rewiring or any type of electrical work for that matter? The age of your home isn’t always the best indicator, since a previous homeowner may have made upgrades, or in a newer home may have added electrical components incorrectly. Fortunately, we are here to share with you a number of signs that it may be time for you to call an electrician for wiring work. Read on!
You Might Need to Call an Electrician If…
Your circuit breakers are constantly tripping or you’re consistently dealing with blown fuses. First off, if you’re still using a fuse box rather than an electrical panel, please give our number a call sooner rather than later! Fuse boxes are very outdated, and not built to withstand the electrical demands of today’s homes.
On that note, your electrical panel might be outdated if you’re constantly dealing with tripped circuit breakers. It makes sense for a circuit breaker to trip every now and then–especially the one connected to your HVAC systems since these make up half of your energy use. But if this is constantly happening, it might mean your panel can’t handle all the demand anymore.
You’ve noticed acrid burning smells coming from the panel or outlets. This is never a good sign! It means that you may have some old wiring somewhere that’s smoldering. This can absolutely turn into an electrical fire if you’re not quick to address it. If you don’t know the source of the smell you’re detecting, the absolute best thing you can do is give our number a call right away.
You see scorch marks on outlet covers and light switches. Like the above sign, this indicates the presence of potential electrical fires. If you’re lucky, it may just mean you need an outlet replacement. We don’t encourage you to do this on your own, as any electrical work in untrained hands can be dangerous. But this is a relatively easy job for our electrical team to handle!
Your lights are dimming and flickering. No, your house is probably not haunted. Sure, we can’t guarantee this, but we can tell you that the most likely suspect is actually power fluctuations due to too much voltage being routed through a circuit that simply can’t handle that much.
This is a pretty common occurrence in older homes. What happens is that homeowners often make renovations and such, adding electrical components and appliances, but don’t upgrade their panels to compensate. Give us a call if you think you may need an electrical panel upgrade!
Sunset Air is the team to call when you need a professional electrician in Olympia. Contact us today!
