Mostly you concentrate on dangers in your home that can be easily detected by your security system or those that can be detected by your dogs, forgetting that there is a greater danger that is an electrical fire. More than 51000 electrical fires happen annually leaving almost 500 people dead and causing a property damage worth 1.4M dollars. As dangerous as the electrical fires seem to be, there is hope in dealing with the situation because there are ways to avoid or prevent the fires.
here, we are giving a guide on the main causes of electrical fires and how to manage or prevent them. The major reasons for electrical fires in homes of old wiring, you should ensure that you renew the electrical codes in your home constantly. Old wiring also cannot support many appliances connected to it, this will overload the system. Another cause of fires is if the wiring is faulty, this happens when there are trips in your breaker after a simultaneous connection of your microwave and toaster. Another major cause of electrical fires is faulty appliances which have been recorded that over the past 7 years they have been the reasons behind the fires in houses. You need to check that the appliances are connected to non-faulty connections and you can also incorporate the use of ground-fault circuit indicator outlet which ensures that there is a balance between the incoming and outgoing currents. When purchasing an electrical appliance, ensure that you take advantage of the maintenance agreements receipts that are offered, some of the special offers you will receive is an annual inspection of the appliances.
The other reason for electrical wires is cheap extension cords as well as misuse of the cords, you should not connect appliances to the extension cords. Another cause of fires is the space heater which according to the National Fire protection agency covers up to 43% of fires in homes, the space heaters are used to heat your homes, however, when it is close to something flammable, it causes fire. The other a space heater can cause fire is when it is plugged into an extension cord, this is because an extension cannot handle so much power.
The other cause is arcs, which occur when an outlet is not properly installed or when an electric current gets off its path. The other cause of electrical fires is the lighting fixtures, should you want to install a bulb or lamp, check the wattage and avoid installing the bulb if the wattage is beyond the wattage that is recommended.
You should purchase a fire extinguisher in your home, it can be very handy during electrical fires. The easiest way to prevent an electrical fire is to hire an electrician who will inspect your electrical system constantly.