How Safe Is the Electrical In Your Home - A DIY Inspection

The following is going to be a super simple guild for you personally to rapidly assess when you have any points that may need immediate attention. This is in no way intended as a replacement for an inspection by a licensed home inspector or an electrician.

You wont need any tools to this quick walk around inspection

Things to look out for.

Do your outlets have grounds. If you look at the power outlet which you plug your appliances into and you only have two slots for each plug, then there's a good chance you do not have a ground wire guarding the outlet.

There are a couple of way of adding protection to the ungrounded circuit. The very best and costliest way is to rewire the circuit totally. Another less pricey choice is to protect the circuit with a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) breaker.

Do you have outlets close to the sinks? In numerous areas you will find rules on how far power outlets may be to the sink. What was once regarded as acceptable isn't seen as dangerous. The dangers of electricity are multiplied when water is involved. If you have outlet in a kitchen or bathroom close to the sink you need to get an electrician to change them for GFCI’s

Do you have ‘hard-wired’ smoke detectors? Hard-wired and interlinked smoke detectors don't cost much more than a regular battery one, but with the interlink you'll hear it all over your house. This could save you life if there is a fire in another part of your home you're unaware of. I would highly recommend installing hard-wired smoke detectors on every floor of your home

Do you have an under rated service? Take a look at you electrical panel or breaker box. There will be a main breaker most likely at the top. On the leaver of the breaker will be the apm rating of the panel. If you have a 60 or 70 amp panel you may be uninsured! Modern homes are supplied with 100 or 200 amps service and panels and most insurance companies will not insure a house if it has less than 100 amps. If your panel is less than 100 amps you should call a licensed electrician who has experience with upgrading service and get a quote to upgrade.

Together with the undersized service you'll most likely have old circuit breakers protecting your home. Circuit breakers only have a like of approximately 15 years, after this the level of protection diminishes significantly.