![\"outdoor-lighting\"](\"https:\/\/www.comfortflow.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Before-You-Put-Up-Those-Holiday-Lights-Consider-This.jpg\")
As much as we might not like to think about it, the holiday season is almost upon us. If you are like many homeowners in the Springfield area and beyond, you may be starting to think about decorating your home, inside and out. Most of the time, this includes putting up holiday lights around the home.<\/p>\n
One of the most frequent calls our electricians receive around this time of the year is in regard to certain outlets not working throughout their home. This may include bathroom outlets, garage outlets, and outdoor outlets. The thing is, your holiday lights might be what\u2019s to blame.<\/p>\n
What occurs is that the holiday lights trip one of your GFCI outlets, or even the circuit breaker itself.<\/p>\n
GFCI stands for ground fault circuit interrupter, <\/em>and it is the type of outlet that\u2019s installed in areas that water can reach. So this includes your bathrooms, outdoor areas, laundry room, and even your garage. GFCI outlets have a very important job\u2014they protect you from serious injury, through electrocution, and automatically shut off if moisture is detected or your electrical system is overloaded.<\/p>\n When more amperage passes through an electrical circuit or wire than it is designed to manage, then overloading occurs. Basically, when you try to draw in power for too many appliances\u2014or lights\u2014from a single outlet, an overload can happen.<\/p>\n Even if you\u2019re spreading out appliances and lighting among different outlets, you still need to consider the overall capacity of your home\u2019s electrical system. Your electrical wiring and circuit panel both need to be able to manage the total load of all electrical appliances, equipment, and lighting that rely on it.<\/p>\n There are some basic warning signs you can keep an eye out for that signal your electrical system is overloaded and at risk. These include:<\/p>\n If you notice any of these indicators, or if you suspect something might be up with your electrical system, the best thing you can do is to cease use of the impacted outlets, appliances, or wall switches and call for a professional electrical inspection. Don\u2019t just brush it off and blame it on your holiday lights only to ignore it this season.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s right, my holiday lights! Should I just not put them up this year?\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n That\u2019s definitely not what we are getting at! You should be able to enjoy your holiday decorations just as much as your neighbors enjoy theirs. It\u2019s absolutely possible to avoid electrical overloads without sacrificing your enjoyment of the season. We say go ahead and plan on putting your lights up, but before you start, give our professional electricians a call.<\/p>\n We will do a thorough inspection of your system\u2014our pros know what to look for and can spot hidden hazards like faulty or aging wiring. We\u2019ll make recommendations from there like upgrading your wiring, or even your electrical panel if needed.<\/p>\n When you\u2019re looking for trustworthy <\/strong>electricians in Springfield, OR<\/strong><\/a>, contact <\/strong>Comfort Flow Heating<\/strong><\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the most frequent calls our electricians receive around this time of the year is in regards to certain outlets not working throughout their home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[197],"tags":[205,92],"class_list":["post-1820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electrical","tag-electricians","tag-springfield"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comfortflow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comfortflow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comfortflow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comfortflow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comfortflow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1820"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.comfortflow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1826,"href":"https:\/\/www.comfortflow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820\/revisions\/1826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comfortflow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comfortflow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comfortflow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What Causes an Electrical System Overload?<\/h2>\n
How to Tell If Your Electrical System Is Overloaded<\/h2>\n
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