When you have an electrical short in your house, perhaps you are experiencing a lot of blown fuses or tripped circuit breakers. It is also common to hear a popping sound, which may be fairly loud, whenever the circuit becomes activated. A short circuit happens when you develop an erroneous connection within one of the circuits, which happens when an electric path has developed accidentally in the circuit. If you think that somewhere in your house there is an electrical short, it should be located and repaired immediately. If not attended to, an electrical short can cause wire damage a result of the insulation melting, circuit damage, or possibly a fire. Should you be comfortable working around electricity, you can use the following steps to find and repair the electrical short yourself. If you are not comfortable, then you definitely should call an authorized electrician.
Things To Check First
When you are attempting to find the place that the electrical short is, a first good step is to check your appliances. If you know which appliances you were using as soon as the short occurred, unplug these appliances. Next, reset the circuit breaker or change the fuse that is connected to the circuit which has supplied electricity to your appliances. Energize the circuit, being sure that the fuse fails to blow or the circuit breaker won?t trip. If it does, even when no appliances are plugged in, it?s likely that the short exists within the receptacle or the wiring. If everything is fine, then odds are there is an appliance causing the problem. Test each appliance individually. If you?re able to find out which one was causing the problem, you?ll need to either correct it or get rid of it.
If You Have a Short In Your Wiring
If checking your appliances doesn?t reveal your trouble, then it is likely that you?ve got problems inside your wiring. The first thing that you must do is to switch off the circuit containing the trouble. Before you can proceed, you need to use a volt/ohm meter to check the voltage and make certain that your circuit is switched off. When you verify that your meter registers zero and there?s no voltage showing, then remove your receptacle and pull the wires out by using a screwdriver and pliers. Adjust your volt/ohm meter so that it will now measure ohms. Connect one of the leads to the bare end of the black wire, and then the other lead to the bare ends of the white wire. If the reading that you get on your meter shows O.L. (infinite ohms), that is a sign the receptacle itself should be replaced. The short is probably in the wire or circuit breaker if your volt/ohm meter shows continuity. If this is the situation, the main breaker needs to be turned off to further investigate the problem. At this stage, calling an electrician is generally the best option in the interest of safety. The electrician can spot which fuse or breaker connection is bringing about the problem and remove the wires If the wire is shorted or the breaker is defective, an electrician is able to safely make the repair then test to verify the problem is completely resolved.
Now that you know how to identify an electrical short in your house, you can better protect your home and family from a catastrophic fire caused by an electrical problem.
If you?re looking for a great team of Roseville electrician, then check out AAA Electrical Services. They?ll be sure to help you with all your Sacramento electrical services needs! Give them a call at 916-972-7515.
Source: http://home-and-family.myblogzone.info/2011/07/how-to-locate-an-electrical-short-in-the-home/
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