Whether for home or business, any faults in your electrical system can put your property and its occupants at risk. They can be exposed to electric shocks and fires, so you must identify and rectify faults without delay.
Faults in the electrical supply are dangerous and must be resolved properly by a licensed professional; otherwise, they are likely to get worse. However, an unqualified individual can undertake fault finding and basic procedures such as changing light bulbs and resetting circuit breakers.
How to Identify and Isolate an Electrical Fault
Electricity flows through a closed circuit, which is created when an appliance is plugged in or a switch is turned on. Turning a switch off will open the circuit and prevent the flow of electricity. These are both parts of normal operation, but a short circuit, which occurs when electricity flows through an erroneous connection, is an electrical fault.
Your switchboard contains a number of circuit breakers, and these will trip off when a fault occurs, opening the circuit and preventing the flow of electricity, so harm is avoided. Problems are sometimes obvious, indicated by a smell of burning, a plug that feels hot or discolouration caused by heat. At other times, however, you may need to investigate further.
A fault will often cause an individual circuit breaker to trip, which will indicate the faulty circuit. Sometimes this does not happen, and the main switch is tripped instead, so that all power is off. You will then need to find the fault by:
- Turning off all the individual circuit breakers as well as the main switch.
- Turning the main switch back on to restore power, although all circuits are off, so no electricity will flow.
- Turn the individual circuit breakers back on in sequence.
- The faulty circuit will trip off again, while the others will remain on. This means you have restored power to the property except for the circuit where the problem exists, generally caused by a faulty appliance, damaged wiring or a loose connection.
- Contact an electrician to resolve the problem. Do not attempt this yourself because you may cause safety issues.
Preventing Future Electrical Faults
Electrical faults are often caused by bad connections, wiring that is closely packed or circuits that are overloaded with too many appliances. An electrician can resolve these issues and prevent future problems via thorough electrical fault finding.
You can also help to prevent faults by:
- avoiding overloading circuits by not having too many appliances connected
- ensuring energy-intensive equipment, such as air conditioning units, has a dedicated circuit
- regularly checking wiring for damage
- having your system tested and inspected frequently to ensure it is safe and everything is working correctly.
Domestic systems generally have the common problems of overloads, power surges and defective appliances, while businesses have increased power loads and cannot afford downtime due to electrical faults. We can help you avoid all that with regular inspections to identify possible faults and maintenance, including emergency call-outs, to fix any problems. Don’t take any risks, but get in touch with Florance Electrical to have your faults found and corrected.