3 Electrical Appliances You Can’t Forget About
Rewiring your home isn’t something you’ll need to do every year. A good rewiring job will stay good for many years.But that’s not to say the same is true for other kinds of electrical products in your home. Some of them may need replacement, testing, or frequent maintenance. In this post, we’ll talk about a few of those items that would be dangerous to forget about.
Whole-House Generators
When the power suddenly goes out in your neighborhood, you’re going to feel lucky that you installed a whole-house generator for your Overland Park home. Of course, that’s assuming it has received proper maintenance since the time you installed it. Unfortunately, a generator that fails to start at the worst possible time is more common than you’d think.Common problems with generators include cracks in the fuel lines, coolant lines, or start-up batteries that have lost their charge. Luckily, a quick check every few months will ensure that things keep working.
Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors
Smoke detectors are pretty self-explanatory because we’ve been told about them for all of our lives. If a fire occurs in the home, the smoke will eventually reach the alarm and set it off.On the other hand, not everyone has had the experience of using a carbon monoxide detector. In the event that your gas furnace does not sufficiently burn fuel, it will create carbon monoxide: a deadly gas that is poisonous and odorless. Luckily, a well-placed carbon monoxide detector will detect the gas and sound the alarm. It’s especially important to place these alarms near bedrooms since most carbon monoxide-related deaths happen when the victims are asleep.Of course, both kinds of detectors are only useful when they’re working! Those that use batteries will need to be checked periodically to ensure that batteries are still charged. Detectors that are connected to the power grid especially need to be checked since their backup batteries may need to be replaced.
GFCI Outlets
You might think that electrical outlets are pretty standard and straight-forward. As long as there’s nothing wrong with them, there’s nothing to worry about, right?That might be true, but that’s looking at it from the wrong perspective. Rather than asking if your outlets are still in working order, what you should ask instead is if they’re still appropriate. In particular, what we’re talking about is ensuring that certain outlets in the home use GFCI outlets.GFCI (ground–fault circuit interrupter) outlets are meant to protect you from electrical shocks. You’ve most likely seen them before and didn’t realize it; these are the outlets that have a red and black “reset” and “test” button on them. They’re commonly seen in bathrooms.Bathrooms, kitchens, garages, outdoors, and other areas exposed to water are required to use these outlets. In the event that the outlet detects too much current running through it, it will break the connection, thus preventing you from being electrocuted. If your home doesn’t have GFCI outlets in the appropriate places, you’ll want to get them updated as soon as possible.