Important Electrical Safety Tips for Your Home

January 20th, 2020
electrical-outlet-wall

Perhaps the most important job of a professional electrician is creating electrical safety in buildings. This is part of basic code compliance, but it’s also common sense. Electrical systems with poor installation or amateur repairs can create fires and dangerous electrical shocks.

You can trust our licensed electricians to help with the repairs and replacements to improve electrical safety in your home. There are also some basic electrical safety tips to follow that will help you and your family remain safe. We’ve listed the important ones below.

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Gas, Diesel, And LP: Fuel Sources for Generators

January 6th, 2020
emergency-home-generator

We strongly recommend our customers in Western New York invest in a whole-house generator. Long-term power losses due to bad weather or stress on the electrical grid are becoming more common, and the best defense against being trapped for hours or even days without power is to have a back-up power source.

A whole-house generator in Buffalo, NY is the best way to provide back-up power. Portable generators aren’t powerful enough to handle the needs of an entire house, and they can also create dangerous fumes inside the living spaces.

So whole-house generators are great for back-up energy. But you’ll need to make a choice about the source of energy for a whole-house generator. There are multiple options, but the three most common are natural gas, diesel, and liquid petroleum (LP).

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Warning Signs You Need Electrical Rewiring for Your House

December 23rd, 2019
electric-house-rewire

One of the most important jobs we perform for our customers is rewiring older houses to keep them up to code and handle modern electrical loads. There are many vintage homes in Western New York that have outdated wiring that can lead to numerous power failures and even safety hazards. If your home is one of these, you’ll need the assistance of a professional electrician in Clarence, NY to take care of the rewiring—and that means calling us!

But how will you know your home needs professional rewiring? Age alone isn’t the best indicator, since a previous owner may have done upgrades. We’ve put together a list below of the major warning signs that you should call us to rewire all or part of your house.

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De-Icing Cables for Winter Protection From Ice Dams

December 9th, 2019

You may have encountered trouble from ice dams before, even if you don’t know exactly what ice dams are. Ice dams are what occurs when water running off the side of the roof of a house freezes in the winter cold before it reaches the gutter. Ice dams can build up until they overwhelm a gutter, creating problems like water backing up into the house or broken gutters. Moisture can also get under the shingles of the roof and create serious damage.

The reason ice dams occur in the first place is the uneven heating from underneath. Warmth gathers in the attic because heat rises. This melts ice on the roof, which trickles down toward the gutter, but then reaches the cold edges of the roof where it freezes.

What can you do to stop ice dams? One option to consider calling a professional electrician in Buffalo, NY to install de-icing cables on your roof.  

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Common Electrical Repairs You May Need

November 25th, 2019
electric-house-rewire

The electrical system in a house is something most of us take for granted. Flip a switch, the lights come on. Plug in the toaster and it works. Put your phone in a recharging station and its battery powers up.

But nothing as complex and important as a residential system can ever be dismissed. At some point, the electrical system may malfunction and need repairs. Only certified electricians can perform the repairs since amateur work can create safety risks. For professional electricians, like ours, customer safety is always the top priority.

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What Does It Mean for My Electrical System to Be “Up to Code”?

November 11th, 2019
electrical-panel-repairs

You’ve heard the term “up to code” before and have a general sense of what it means when it comes to electrical systems: they have to meet certain guidelines in order to be considered safe. But what does that mean in practice? What is this nebulous code, and how can you know if your home is in violation of some kind? And if your home isn’t “up to code,” what needs to be done to fix the problem?

That’s plenty of questions, but we’ll address these concerns briefly below. As with any serious electrical system question, it’s best to ask an electrician in Amherst, NY directly. You’ll get the best information as well as the service you require.

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I Have Power Strips, Do I Really Need a Surge Protector Installed?

October 28th, 2019

Yes, you do.

Before we discuss further how important a surge protector is for a residential electrical system, we want to emphasize that there is nothing wrong with using power strips at the various outlets in your home. In fact, we encourage it. Multiple layers of defense against electrical surges are beneficial. You never want to overload an outlet in your house with an octopus plug: power strips allow you to plug in multiple items at a single outlet without the concern of tripping a circuit breaker because of a voltage spike.

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Aluminum Wiring in Your Home: What You Should Know

October 14th, 2019

The demands placed on residential electrical systems are higher than they were only ten years ago, and significantly higher than thirty years ago. With more appliances and charging stations than ever before plugged into a house’s electrical system, it makes sense to upgrade older wiring. Our Buffalo, NY electricians handle electrical wiring and rewiring for homes. Whatever amount of new wiring you may need for your older house, we can take care of the job. We also make upgrades to outlets and electrical panels.

In this post, we’re going to address a specific rewiring concern, which is aluminum wiring found in many older homes. Is aluminum wiring dangerous and does it need to be replaced?

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Prep for Extreme Weather with a Whole House Generator

September 26th, 2019

The fall means more than just a change in temperature and kids going back to school. The weather changes can often be severe, and in the past homeowners in Western New York have had to deal with extended power outages. These blackouts are often more than inconveniences—they can also be life-threatening for homes where people depend on powered medical equipment and during extremely cold weather.

You can take precautions against the dangers of power outages. But no preparation is better than having a whole-house generator installed for your home.

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Getting AFCI and GFCI Outlets Straightened Out

September 16th, 2019
A new GFCI electrical outlet.

We have professional electricians who install AFCI and GFCI outlets in Buffalo, NY homes and elsewhere in Western New York. In fact, we strongly recommend homeowners arrange for this service if they have an older electrical system without these types of outlets. You can recognize these outlets by the two buttons located between their sockets.

If you’re already reaching for the phone to call us or you’re typing a message for a service request, that’s great. You can hang out here and read more about what these outlets do. If you still aren’t sure, we also want you to hang out as we explain the difference between AFCI and GFCI and why both are important.

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