Scherer Electric Blog: Archive for the ‘Electrical’ Category

Outdated Wiring Systems We Recommend Changing

Monday, July 18th, 2022
electric-house-rewire

We offer many important services to upgrade the electrical systems of homes throughout Western New York. Since the area has so many vintage homes, there’s a large number of houses with wiring decades out of date. Not only do these antiquated wiring systems have trouble handling modern electrical loads, they can create fire hazards.

If you have a home built before 1980, we recommend contacting our electricians to inspect your house and see if you need electrical wiring and rewiring in Depew, NY. 

There are two specific cases of outdated wiring common in New York that we recommend fully upgrading: aluminum wiring and knob-and-tube wiring.

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Ways to Tell Your Electrical Panel Has Damage

Monday, July 4th, 2022
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One of the most important jobs we take on as electricians is replacing electrical panels in Orchard Park, NY and elsewhere in our service area. Panels are the central “switching station” for a home’s electrical system: this is where the incoming current divides into the various circuits for the rest of the building. As residential electrical usage increases, old panels become obsolete and need upgrades. 

But panel age isn’t the only reason you may need to have a panel replacement (or in some cases panel repairs). A damaged panel requires professional assistance right away or your home may face serious electrical hazards or a loss of power.

How can you determine if you have a damaged electrical panel? We’ll guide you through the major signs below.

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Tips to Reduce Energy Use to Avoid Power Outages This Summer

Monday, June 20th, 2022
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Western New York can suffer from long-term power outages and blackouts during the summer. This is a period when the strain on the electrical grid soars as people use air conditioning systems more. Unless a home has an electric water heater, the air conditioner is the appliance that consumes the most electricity. 

As electricians in Amherst, NY with a long history in the area, we know plenty about electrical use in summer. We want to help you reduce your summer electrical consumption so you can help the grid stay healthy for everyone and avoid outages and blackouts. 

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Why Your Circuit Breakers Might Keep Tripping

Monday, June 6th, 2022
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If you’re like many homeowners, you may not realize just how important circuit breakers in Buffalo, NY are to the safety and efficacy of your entire electrical system. Your circuit breaker panel, also known as an electrical panel, protects your wiring and electrical components from power surges and other wiring issues that could lead to blackouts, electrocution, or even fire.

Circuit breakers are not immune to damage themselves though, and when they’re frequently tripping, it’s a sign of an issue that needs to be repaired. Read on as we uncover what might be happening when your circuit breakers keep tripping.

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6 Signs Your Whole-House Generator Needs Repairs

Monday, May 23rd, 2022

We strongly advise our customers to install a whole-house generator to protect their homes in case of extended blackouts. When one of these generators receives the proper care, it can defend a home from long-term power losses for years and provide peace of mind even when the generator isn’t in use.

You may need to schedule generator repair in Buffalo, NY at some point to ensure your whole-house generator is ready to work when you need it. This presents a bit of a dilemma: you don’t run your generator often, so how can you tell when it needs repairs?

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Electricity Saving Tips for Summer

Monday, May 9th, 2022
ThermometerHot

The summer heat will arrive before we know it here in Western New York. Summer can be a great time, but it’s also a period when electrical bills start to rise as air conditioning systems turn on and begin grinding away to keep away the heat. 

We want to help you get control over those high electrical bills this season. Below are a few of our professional tips for lowering your electrical costs over summer.

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Top 5 Reasons to Install a Backup Generator

Monday, April 25th, 2022

We encourage many of our customers in Western New York to invest in backup generators for their homes. Power outages are becoming more common, and full blackouts—which may last for several days—are not only inconvenient for homes, they can be dangerous as well. Homes are at the highest risk of losing power during storms and heatwaves, the periods when you most want to have reliable electrical power moving through your house. 

If you want more convincing about why a backup generator in Buffalo, NY is a wise idea, below we’ve listed the best five reasons to call us about arranging for this service. We’ll see you have the right generator for your specific needs and we’ll have it installed and ready to go to work in only a short time.

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The Causes of Power Outages in Your Home

Monday, April 11th, 2022

Even with the best electrical grid available to provide power, power outages can still occur in homes. You’ve almost certainly experienced loss of electricity to at least one house you’ve lived in—maybe for a few hours, maybe for days. 

Although you can take steps to avoid losing power in your house because of malfunctions with your own electrical system, there are many external causes you cannot avoid. In these cases, your best tool is preparation, such as having a whole-house generator installed as a backup and having surge protection in place to prevent damage to appliances due to a catastrophic event (weather, downed power lines) creating an outage.

In this post, we’re going to explain in more depth the types of power outages and their sources. 

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Do You Have an Old Fuse Box? Here’s Why You Need to Upgrade!

Monday, March 28th, 2022

The fuse box or fuse panel was standard in homes for many decades. The fuses separated the different circuits for the house, and in case of a voltage overload, a fuse would burn out and cut off the electrical flow to its circuit. 

However, the fuse box is out of date—and has been for some time. Electrical panels that use circuit breakers have replaced them. Circuit breakers trip due to voltage spikes rather than burn out, and they can be reset afterward rather than having to put in a new fuse. 

If your home still has a fuse box, you might think that it isn’t that major of a problem and you can get by with the occasional inconvenience. We don’t recommend this course, for several reasons. We’ll explain why scheduling a professional fuse box replacement in Buffalo, NY is the best choice for your home—and one to have done as soon as you can.

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Do Generators Need Maintenance?

Monday, March 14th, 2022
wrenches

In a word: yes. Although you don’t use your generator often (at least, we hope you don’t need to rely on it often), you want to ensure that it will work when you need it to. After all, if you can’t trust your backup generator, it doesn’t serve much purpose!

The difficulty when it comes to generator maintenance is that people often let their generators slip from their minds. When you don’t rely on an appliance on a regular basis, like your HVAC system, plumbing, and electrical system, it can get pushed to the back of your priority list. We wrote this blog to change that and get the maintenance moved to the front of that list. Allowing your generator to go without maintenance for several years can mean the generator won’t rise to the occasion when the occasion arises. 

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