Posts Tagged ‘wall plug’

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Portable Heaters and fire damage

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

Portable Heaters – Cold Weather is here    (thanks Jim Simmons for this original article and sharing it with everyone)

 

 Portable heaters (any heater that plugs into an outlet) are wonderful things. They can keep us warm and increase our comfort, but they can also be dangerous. More than 25,000 residential fires, and 300 deaths are associated with the use of portable space heaters every year. (Source: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission). As an electrical contractor, one of our jobs is to repair wiring in homes and businesses that have been damaged. In many instances in the winter months we find wiring that has been damaged by overloading it with portable heaters. Most homes have electrical wiring for outlets and lights that is rated at 15 amps. A standard 15 amp general circuit will have a combination of 10 – 20 lights and outlets which will serve TV’s, lights, computers, exhaust fans and similar items. A typical portable heater uses 1500 watts or 12.5 amps (the heater nameplate has this information). When you connect a portable heater rated at 12.5 amps to a circuit that is designed to handle 15 amps maximum, the problem is easy to see. You can easily overload the typical electrical wiring in your home if a few lights, TV’s, computers or other electrical appliances are turned on at the same time that you are running a portable heater.

This little device has caused more fires in homes than playing with matches

Do you like to gamble?

Companies like; Ednepure, Heat Surge, Amish Heaters, and many others spend a lot of money to convince you that you can save money with their heaters. The truth is all portable heaters basically work the same and can save you money. But the savings come from heating a smaller area, not the heater itself.

You should always use the original heating system that was installed in your home. If it is not working properly, get it repaired. If it is not efficient have it replaced.

Remember portable heaters should never be used as permanent heat sources unless they are connected to a dedicated circuit (an outlet with nothing else on the circuit). They can, and in many cases will cause damage to your electrical system and will possibly cause a fire. If you are using portable heaters to heat your home – please stop! Be safe! Don’t cause a fire!

Jeffries electric has great residential electric repairs and commercial electric repairs. We install 200 amp panels and replace federal breaker panels. We install landscape lights and recessed lights. We fix electrical plugs and electrical switches and 3 way switches. we are your Denton electrician, Coppell electrician, lewisville electrician, highland village electrician, Frisco electrician, Plano electrician, corinth electrician. We fix gfci plugs and repair breakers. We install whole house surge protector. Licensed electrician and insured electrician. Add phone outlets. We repair landscape lights. We fix light switches. Install ground rod. Electric repair work should be performed by a licensed electrician. Be safe and turn off the breaker first. Please be careful this holiday season. Ladders injure as many people as do auto accidents. Always use a gfci outlet for outdoor lighting. If your cords are damaged or frayed, please replace them with new outdoor cords.

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Trouble with your Troubleshooting ?

Saturday, July 2nd, 2011

Having Trouble troubleshooting Your Electrical Problems?

Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter

GFCI outlet

  • Have you suffered electrical problems since the recent storms?   

  • Did your GFCI outlets trip and you can’t get them to reset?

  • Did you attempt to repair or fix the problem and have not had success?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Maybe you have an A/C breaker tripping.  Whatever the problem , your 1st thoughts are “Hey, this can’t be that hard to fix!”

  Then after a few hours of tracing out circuits and resetting breakers you decide to consult your local electrician. Frustration has set in and maybe even anger.

When you pick up the phone to call your local electrician here are some questions to ask.

  1. Is the electrician you are sending out a State Licensed Journeyman or Master Electrician, not just an apprentice?
  2. Are the electricians your employees or are they subcontractors or temporary help?
  3. Have the electricians passed a full back ground check with a clean record?  ( Make note that some companies perform back ground checks but it doesn’t mean that the employees passed with a clean back ground.  It just means they performed the check and did not disclose the results. )
  4. Can you provide references from a local company or homeowner ?

Always check the advertisement to see if the add includes  this      “TECL #” .  This is the # assigned to a licensed and insured Electrical Contractor that will provide professional and quality service. The State requires that they deal with the customer in a professional manner and with integrity.  OUR  TECL# is 19080.  You can go the the State of Texas web site and check your contractor or electrician to see if they have the proper license.  A master or journeyman license alone is not enough. You can only get the TECL # when you show the state your proof of insurance and you intent to deliver professional results.

http://www.license.state.tx.us/LicenseSearch/     Look here to see if your company is in violation of state law.

Jeffries electric has great residential electric repairs and commercial electric repairs. We install 200 amp panels and replace federal breaker panels. We install landscape lights and recessed lights. We fix electrical plugs and electrical switches and 3 way switches. we are your Denton electrician, Coppell electrician, lewisville electrician, highland village electrician, Frisco electrician, Plano electrician, corinth electrician. We fix gfci plugs and repair breakers. We install whole house surge protector. Licensed electrician and insured electrician. Add phone outlets. We repair landscape lights. We fix light switches. Install ground rod. Electric repair work should be performed by a licensed electrician. Be safe and turn off the breaker first.Jeffries Electric is a GSA schedule holder.

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Prolonged heat and Damage

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

When you see electrical outlets that have turned black and are melted and charred, what do you think? Was this mis- use or an inferior product? Did the appliance cord fail and cause the wall plug to burn?

overheated and burned

Use the correct outlet

 This outlet along with the others were all installed for the counter top in a new kitchen. Instead of using a 20 amp heavy duty outlet, the electrician saved a few dollars and installed a residential grade 15 amp outlet. The results were a chain reaction failure in this commercial kitchen. The cook just moved to the next outlet each time the plug failed.

Wrong outlets

too much heat builtup for too long

 The breaker did not trip because the current never exceeded 20 amps. But, the load on each 15 amp outlet caused an overheating condition and the loss of the device and the loss of sales when the kitchen could not operate. This usually happens at lunch time.

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electrician in Frisco talks about a gfci- 2

Friday, January 21st, 2011

Jeffries electric has great residential electric repairs and commercial electric repairs. We install 200 amp panels and replace federal breaker panels. We install landscape lights and recessed lights. We fix electrical plugs and electrical switches and 3 way switches. we are your Denton electrician, Coppell electrician, lewisville electrician, highland village electrician, Frisco electrician, Plano electrician, corinth electrician. We fix gfci plugs and repair breakers. We install whole house surge protector. Licensed electrician and insured electrician. Add phone outlets. We repair landscape lights. We fix light switches. Install ground rod. Electric repair work should be performed by a licensed electrician. Be safe and turn off the breaker first.Jeffries Electric is a GSA schedule holder.

GFCI repairs and problems

It is possible (if this new GFCI receptacle was replacing a regular receptacle) that the GFCI receptacle has been added into a three-wire circuit where the neutral is “shared” (before it splits to 2 two-wire circuits). A simple GFCI receptacle will only work on two-wire circuits: one “Hot” and one “Neutral”.
Also there may or may not be a “Ground” wire. If there is one, it is a protective wire and is not counted as a circuit wire.
If you know that the GFCI is good, then a heater or other appliance that you are plugging in has a ground fault condition. This means that the bottom (ground) prong on the plug is carrying current, instead of the neutral. A GFCI measures the current coming in from the hot and compares it to the current going out on the neutral. If they differ from each other, the GFCI will trip. In your case the heater may have a fault to its frame and some of the current is going to the ground wire. Either find the fault by taking the heater apart, or buy a new one and toss the faulty one before it causes a serious problem.
Assuming you have pressed the ‘RESET’ button but the GFCI always trips again immediately, there are several possible things that will have to be checked very carefully.
The newly installed GFCI could be tripping because of a neutral-to-ground short circuit, called a “neutral-to-ground fault”, somewhere in the circuit it is monitoring. Here are some possible reasons for such a fault:
1) There is something plugged in to one of the outlets, that has a neutral-to-ground fault. Any plugged-in appliance which has a neutral-to-ground fault will always cause the GFCI to trip even though the appliance’s own “on-board” on-off switch may be off. So remove all appliances from the outlets and try to reset the GFCI. If all is well, plug in each appliance in turn until you find the one with the neutral-to-ground fault.
Add phone outlets.We repair landscape lights.We fix light switches.electrican plugs and repair breakers. we install whole house surge protector. licensed electrician and insured gfci electrician. we fix corinth electrician,plano electrician, frisco electrician, highland village electrician, lewisville electrician,coppell electrician, denton electric does great residential electric repairs and commercial electric repairs. We install 200 amp panels and replace federal breaker panels. We install landscape lights and recessed lights. We fix electrical plugs and electrical switches and 3 way switches.
Here are other things that can trip the GFCI:
1. Foreign matter in an outlet box (I found dead roaches in one case)
2. A noise suppressor power strip or power line filter

3. A guitar amp with a ground reverse switch
4. A water leak in the wall dripping on wiring
5. Older electronic devices made before GFCI became common
6. Some older vacum cleaners
7. Devices that make sudden power surges

jeffries electric does great residential electric repairs and commercial electric repairs. We install 200 amp panels and replace federal breaker panels. We install landscape lights and recessed lights. We fix electrical plugs and electrical switches and 3 way switches. we are your denton electrician, coppell electrician,lewisville electrician, highland village electrician, frisco electrician, plano electrician,corinth electrician. we fix gfci plugs and repair breakers. we install whole house surge protector. licensed electrician and insured electrican.Add phone outlets.We repair landscape lights.We fix light switches.Current GSA schedule holder

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wall plugs -test voltage -draft

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

The 15A, 125V Receptacle is used in your home. your standard receptacle that powers everything from your toaster to your TV. If you are replacing or adding a receptacle, here’s how to wire them.Always ensure that the power is off before working on any electricity.
When installing or replacing a receptacle, connect the ground wire first. When removing an old receptacle, disconnect the ground wire last. The ground or bonding wire should be connected to the bonding screw in the device box, and either pig-tailed (in the case of more than one conductor) Connect the neutral wire (s) next. Then connect the black (or red) hot wire .
In your home, most of the receptacles will have at least two cables entering the same box. The second cable is usually feeding another receptacle, however, it could also be coming from a light or switch.
If you have only one cable entering the device box, tighten the unused screws to avoid them coming in contact with the metal box (if using a metal box), or to mitigate the risk of the unused terminals coming in to contact with the bare ground wire when installing the device in place.
There are many other types of receptacles that you may find around the house, like 20A, or 15/20A, 125V Receptacles, GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) Receptacles, electric Dryer Receptacles (30A, 125/250V), and electric Range Receptacles (50A, 125/250V)
jeffries electric does great residential electric repairs and commercial electric repairs. We install 200 amp panels and replace federal breaker panels. We install landscape lights and recessed lights. We fix electrical plugs and electrical switches and 3 way switches. we are your denton electrician, coppell electrician,lewisville electrician, highland village electrician, frisco electrician, plano electrician,corinth electrician. we fix gfci plugs and repair breakers. we install whole house surge protector. licensed electrician and insured electrican.Wiring electrical outlets for Range and Dryer Power Outlets in flush mount, surface mount and panel mount versions come equipped with heavy-gauge, double-wire copper alloy contacts. To ensure correct wiring, . Flush mount receptacles fit a wide range of wall plates and mounting hardware. The new code requirements of the 4-wire 220 volt outlets for clothes dryers provide for the required separate neutral wire.  electrical wiring connection with a 3-wire plug and a 4-wire plug.

Wire your plug with care. always test for voltage and turn off the breaker. wear safety glass and protective gloves. 120 volt plug is also called a duplex receptacle. the electric plug comes in many colors. the electric plug is used in the home and for landscape lights. the electric plug in kitchen is gfci plug. the gfci plug comes in many colors. replace the gfci plug when it quits working. follow the instructions . use a raintight gfci plug cover outdoors. read the instructions. please turn off the breaker before you work. replace federal pacific breakers. use lifetime warranty breakers. use lifetime warranty panels. use lifetime warranty surge protector. use lifetime warranty unique landscape lights. we fix plugs. we fix switches. we install 3 way switches.

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