Eventually you might face an electrical malfunction in your home. What if you’re unable to call an electrician or the issue is something you can fix yourself?
Here is a quick guide on electrical troubleshooting in Temecula homes. We will start with a common problem – flickering lights.
Flickering lights
This is a common electrical issue because it can indicate several things. These include eventual arcing, potentially resulting in sparking, overheating, and fire. Your best bet will be to check for frayed electrical wires.
Frayed electrical cords can easily be fixed but by an electrician. They indicate unsafe wiring in your home and can easily create larger problems. If your electrical issue isn’t fixed after repairing frayed wiring then your electrician can continue troubleshooting to help you.
Tripped circuit breakers
Strangely enough, we’ve all been in this situation where your breakers trip due to an electrical overload. The fix is easy and simply involves identifying the tripped breaker. Flip the switch back on and you should have power.
However, it’s important to note that a tripped breaker is a safety mechanism. You should also identify what overloaded the circuit in your Temecula home and fix that to avoid a repeat.
Sometimes a reset isn’t enough, and a short circuit could be the problem. A short circuit occurs when a hot or live wire touches a neutral or ground wire.
Tracing a short circuit can be challenging for a homeowner because, like flickering lights, it could be many things.
Leave this to your Temecula electrician.
Testing for electricity in an outlet or switch
You may need to do this if you’re trying to determine whether an outlet or an appliance is at fault. To test for electricity in an electrical outlet, you will need some tools. A non-contact voltage tester is the safest and quickest tool to use in this situation.
Just press the tip of the tester that doesn’t conduct electricity into a receptacle or hold it next to a switch to check for power.
You can also use a neon tester by plugging the probes into the slots on the outlet. If the tester lights up then the outlet is receiving power.
However, testing a light switch with a neon tester is different. You would have to remove the cover plate and touch a non-contact electrical connector against both screw terminals.
If you would rather not worry yourself with electrical troubleshooting in your Temecula home, then you can call a licensed electrician in Temecula.
The electrician is experienced with troubleshooting and can provide safer and faster solutions.
An expert electrical troubleshooter uses steps such as –
- Gather information from you and any clues available
- Put symptoms together to try to understand the malfunction
- Identify which parameters need to be evaluated
- Confirm the source or cause of the problem
- Repair or correct the electrical component
- Verify the repair via testing
- Perform a root cause analysis
They save you money in the long term. Call us here today for electrical troubleshooting in Temecula.