Electrician in Clearwater FL

Cloth wiring isn't the best in terms of longevity. Over time, it can crack, flake, or become extra brittle. It's also much more susceptible to damage from insects or rodents. Any wear and tear on the cloth covering can expose the hot wires underneath, creating a serious risk for electrical fires.

Both cloth insulation and knob-and-tube wiring are dangerous. In most cases, the safest way to address this issue – to get insured by a home insurance company – is to completely replace your electrical systems.

If you have aluminum wiring in your house, you might have a fire waiting to happen. Many houses built between 1965 and 1972 were wired with aluminum instead of copper. The wiring itself isn’t a problem; aluminum conducts electricity safely. The trouble is at the connections. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reports that homes with aluminum wiring are 55 times more likely to have “fire hazard conditions” than homes wired with copper.

Completely rewiring your home isn’t practical in most situations—it means tearing into walls and ceilings. But an electrician can make the connections safe by adding a short section of copper wire to the end of each aluminum wire. That way, copper rather than aluminum will be connected to each switch, outlet or other device. COPALUM connectors are preferred by the CPSC, but they require a trained contractor and a special tool. AlumiConn is another brand that can be purchased from online suppliers. These connectors can be installed by any trained electrician but may require that existing junction boxes be replaced with larger ones to make room for the connectors. 

Most Zinsco panels are obsolete today. However, at one time, they were extremely popular and installed in many regions throughout North America. As time has passed, electricians and home inspectors have discovered that certain Zinsco panels often can fail to operate properly and may leave homes and homeowners at risk to both fire and electrical shock. These panels can work fine for years, but as homes have increased energy demands, these panels may overheat and portions of it may melt.

In this situation, if a breaker melts to the bus bar of the panel and can no longer adequately trip in case of an overcurrent or short circuit, an extreme amount of power from the outside electrical supply surges into a home’s panel and circuits. Once that happens, it cannot be stopped or shut off manually. Electricity will burn until it runs out of fuel or the wires melt. The panel could overheat and catch fire, causing serious harm to a home and its occupants.

Federal Pacific Electric Company (FPE) was one of the most common manufacturers of circuit breaker panels in North America from the 1950s to the 1980s. Millions of their panels were installed in homes across the country. Yet, as the years passed, electricians and home inspectors often found Federal Pacific Electric panels failed to provide proper protection to homeowners and their families. Experts now say that FPE panels can appear to work fine for years, but after one overcurrent or short circuit, they can overheat and become fire hazards.

In a class action lawsuit, a New Jersey State Court ruled that the Federal Pacific Electric (FPE) Company “violated the Consumer Fraud Act because FPE knowingly and purposefully distributed circuit breakers which were not tested to meet UL standards…” (To see the Class Action Settlement Notice issued for New Jersey Residents, click here.) An expert who investigated the potential hazards of Federal Pacific Electric panels stated under UL 489 test conditions, that FPE panels fail to trip at a much higher rate than standard panels.

When a breaker fails to trip, an extreme amount of power from the outside electrical supply surges into a home’s panel and circuits. Once that happens, it cannot be stopped or shut off manually. Electricity will burn until it runs out of fuel or the wires melt. The panel could overheat and catch fire, causing serious harm to a home and its occupants. Many Federal Pacific Electric panels and breakers can operate properly for years. But if and when they do malfunction, a disaster could occur.

Sylvania panels were produced by Zinsco, and they have many of the same problems with overheating the wires. Because of this, these panels are considered very unsafe, and many insurance companies will NOT insure your home until you get a panel upgrade.

Challenger panels posed safety hazards very similar to that of Zinsco. The biggest concern for Challengers were their issue with overheating. In turn, that can cause many other issues, like fusing and/or melting, corrosion, or actual fires.

We don’t want you to panic about your fuse box since you aren’t in immediate danger. Fuse boxes functioned for many decades as the standard way a house protected different circuits from electrical overload. However, they do pose some electrical hazards because of the increase in the voltage used in modern homes.

The fuse and the breaker perform the same some: safeguard the electrical system of a house by cutting off excess voltage flow. A breaker does this by tripping a switch that cuts off the circuit, and fuse by burning up because of the heat and stopping the current through the circuit.

Fuses are not as reliable as circuit breakers, but the main problem fuses have today is they need to be larger in order to handle the higher voltage demands of homes. Houses today have many more powered items in them and more outlets. For a fuse box to handle this without constantly blowing fuses, they need to be modified with bigger and bigger fuses. This is where a fuse box starts to present a fire hazard. The circuit is only rated for a specific amount of amps, so putting a larger amp fuse onto a smaller amp rated circuit is potentially dangerous.

A ground fault circuit interrupter, called a GFCI or GFI, is an inexpensive electrical device that can either be installed in your electrical system or built into a power cord to protect you from severe electrical shocks. GFCIs have played a key role in reducing electrocutions. Greater use of GFCIs could further reduce electrocutions and mitigate thousands of electrical burn and shock injuries still occurring in and around the home each year. Ground fault protection is integrated into GFCI receptacles and GFCI circuit breakers for installation into your electrical system, especially for circuit outlets in particularly vulnerable areas such as where electrical equipment is near water. Portable GFCIs are also available to provide on-the-spot ground fault protection even if a GFCI is not installed on the circuit. The GFCI is designed to protect people from severe or fatal electric shocks but because a GFCI detects ground faults, it can also prevent some electrical fires and reduce the severity of other fires by interrupting the flow of electric current.

A ground fault is an unintentional electrical path between a power source and a grounded surface. Ground faults most often occur when equipment is damaged or defective, such that live electrical parts are no longer adequately protected from unintended contact. If your body provides a path to the ground for this current, you could be burned, severely shocked or electrocuted  

An arc fault is a high power discharge of electricity between two or more conductors. This discharge generates heat, which can break down the wire's insulation and trigger an electrical fire. Arc faults can range in current from a few amps up to thousands of amps, and are highly variable in strength and duration.

Some common causes of arc fault are loose wire connections, over heated wires, or wires pinched by furniture.

AFCIs were developed in response to an identified electrical problem causing fires in the home as noted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and other prominent organizations. An AFCI breaker provides a higher level of protection than a standard circuit breaker by detecting and removing the hazardous arcing condition before it becomes a fire hazard.