Freezing temperatures, snow, and excessive rainfall can strain your home’s electrical system. To ensure that your home stays safe and comfortable during the cold winter months, many precautions and other actions must be taken as a leading provider of residential and commercial electrical services. That’s why we’ve compiled some critical winter electrical safety tips to help you ensure that your home is fully prepared.

4 Electrical Tips to Keep Your Home Safe During Winter

To keep your home safe from many electrical hazards during the winter, consider these tips:

1. Prepare for a power outage

Blackouts most commonly occur in winter due to heavy snow, ice formation, and wind conditions that can damage power lines, transformers, and other critical electrical components. If there’s a power outage, it’s better to be prepared. Ensure you have some easily accessible LED flashlights or other battery-powered light sources ready to use to maintain visibility. Sometimes, there may be a power outage for up to 72 hours. Make sure you’re fully prepared with an emergency kit with enough supplies to last up to 72 hours without power. Some stores that your power outage emergency kit should include are batteries, candles, matches, flashlights, bottled water, and non-perishable food.

2. Use a surge protection device

In addition to power outages, it’s essential to be prepared for power surges. While these hazards typically last only a few milliseconds (or seconds at most), they can cause severe damage to appliances, and other devices plugged in during power surges. . To protect these devices, consider installing small surge arresters (power strips) to critical outlets and investing in surge arresters throughout the house to keep devices safe. Your device.

3. Beware of Zone Heaters

While zone heaters are the perfect way to keep certain rooms warm while consuming less electricity, they can pose a significant fire hazard if misused. Keep each zone’s fireplace at least 3 feet away from flammable materials such as curtains and blankets. It’s also essential to ensure they don’t directly contact nearby carpets or furniture. In addition to distance considerations, zone heaters should always be plugged into a dedicated outlet, not an extension cord.

4. Consider buying a Backup Generator

If you live in a remote area, your home may lose power for several days. Backup generators can power critical areas of your home — refrigerators, fireplaces, and more. — during prolonged power outages. Consider buying the right appliance for your home to ensure you have power when needed. If you currently own a generator, ensure it is fully fueled and in good working order before winter.

Tips for licensed electricians: Electrical safety at home for the winter

Although the winters in BC’s lower mainland are not compared with those seen across the rest of Canada, this season still comes with difficulties and dangers. Between significant rainfall, ice, and the occasional wind or snowstorm, winter brings weather that can create even more trouble in the form of electrical hazards.
Winter electrical safety tips
As winter approaches, it’s essential to be prepared for possible cold and wet weather difficulties. Some tips to keep in mind to ensure that you and your home stay safe this winter include:

Fireplace safety

Flammable material. If you’re using a space heater in your home, ensure you place it safely from furniture, walls, carpets, curtains, and other fixtures. Space heaters are a great way to keep specific rooms warm without adding to your monthly heating bills, but due to electric heaters’ high heat output, it’s essential to keep them away from objects. If you feel the things around the heater become hot, move the heater. Fire with an unattended fireplace can quickly be started. Always turn off the heater when not in use.

Prepare for a power outage.

Increased frost can cause tree branches and vehicle accidents, which can damage power lines and cause power outages. In a power outage, you should be as prepared as possible. Power outages can sometimes be hours on; Other times, they may be out for days. If the power outage occurs at night, you cannot rely on the heater to keep yourself warm. Be prepared for prolonged power outages with an emergency kit.
If you have a backup generator, make sure it’s ready. The start of winter is the right time to carry out routine maintenance and inspection of your generator. Have a professional check it out to ensure the oil and gas levels are correct and the connection to your home or business is safe and secure. If a power outage occurs, you should be confident that you can rely on your backup power source.

Avoid using candles during a power outage. Many people use candles to light up their rooms during a power outage, and although this can create a friendly atmosphere, it is hazardous. If the candle is left unattended or the wax drips and causes accumulation around the candle, it could lead to a fire. Use LED flashlights or candles instead.

Prepare to set up electricity for your home.

Power outages can harm your home, and extreme weather can be a hazard to many of the electrical components in your home. There are several ways you can protect your home’s electrical setup from winter:

Take care to avoid contact with water and power cords. With constant freezing and thawing, water can find its way into some nooks and crannies of your home. Walk around your home’s interior and exterior walls and look for any exposed electrical wires that may have come into contact with water. Make sure any issues are resolved quickly.
A surge protector in your home will help prevent voltage surges, electric shock, and damage to appliances and electronics.
You can also protect appliances and electronics in your home with surge arresters. Review your home setup to check that the surge arrester is up and running.
During prolonged power outages, unplug significant appliances (oven, refrigerator, freezer, television) and turn off lights (although you can turn on some lights to see when the electricity comes back). This can prevent power failures and damage to equipment when power is restored.
Stay away from cut power lines.
If an icy tree branch knocks down power lines or a car hits a pole, and the power line falls, stay at least three meters or 10 feet away. Power lines are solid and can cause severe electric shock if you are not careful.

Follow and update more news at Electricians Portland