Category Archives: Electrical Grounding

How to Prepare Your Colorado Home for a Power Outage

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Power outages can occur unexpectedly, leaving your Colorado home without electricity and disrupting daily life. Whether caused by severe weather, equipment failure, or scheduled maintenance, being prepared for a power outage can help you navigate through the situation more comfortably.

Licensed electrician

Assemble an Emergency Kit

Create an emergency kit that includes essential supplies such as flashlights, batteries, a battery-powered radio, a first aid kit, non-perishable food, bottled water, and any necessary medications. Store the kit in a designated location that is easily accessible to all family members.

Invest in a Backup Power Source

Consider installing a backup power source, such as a generator or uninterruptible power supply (UPS). These devices can provide temporary electricity during outages, allowing you to power essential appliances and devices. Ensure your backup power source is properly installed, regularly maintained, and fueled or charged in advance.

Maintain Adequate Lighting

Place flashlights and battery-powered lanterns in easily accessible areas throughout your home. Test them regularly to ensure they work properly and keep extra batteries on hand. Avoid using candles, as they pose a fire hazard.

Safeguard Heating and Cooling

Prepare for extreme temperatures during a power outage. In cold weather, ensure you have alternative heating sources such as a fireplace, wood stove, or portable propane heater. Make sure to follow all safety precautions when using these heating sources. In hot weather, create cross-ventilation by opening windows and using battery-operated fans to maintain airflow.

Preserve Refrigerated and Frozen Food

Minimize the frequency of opening refrigerator and freezer doors to keep the temperature as cold as possible. During a power outage, a refrigerator will typically keep food cold for about four hours, while a full freezer will maintain its temperature for about 48 hours. Consider storing perishable items in coolers with ice packs if the outage is prolonged.

The best thing you can do to safeguard and protect yourself from power outages is to reach out to a professional electrician. Contact Always On Electric at (970) 309-2616 today or visit us online for more information!

5 Signs Your Colorado Home Needs Electrical Upgrades

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As a homeowner in Colorado, it’s important to ensure that your electrical system is in top-notch condition to maintain the safety, efficiency, and functionality of your home. Over time, electrical systems can become outdated or experience wear and tear, posing potential risks and inconveniences.

electrical outlet in home being re-wired by professional electricians

Frequent Circuit Breaker Tripping

If your circuit breakers trip frequently, it may indicate that your electrical system is overloaded. This could be due to outdated wiring or an insufficient electrical panel. Upgrading your electrical system will provide the necessary capacity to handle your electrical demands.

Flickering or Dimming Lights

If your lights flicker or dim unexpectedly, it may be a sign of faulty wiring, loose connections, or outdated fixtures. These issues can lead to electrical hazards or insufficient lighting. Upgrading your wiring and fixtures will ensure consistent and reliable illumination.

Outdated Electrical Panel

If your home still has an old fuse box or an inadequate electrical panel, it’s time for an upgrade. Modern electrical panels are equipped with advanced safety features and can handle increased electrical loads, ensuring better protection against electrical hazards.

Non-Grounded Outlets

Older homes often have ungrounded outlets, which can be dangerous, especially in areas where electrical devices require grounding. Upgrading to grounded outlets will enhance electrical safety and provide additional protection against electrical shocks.

Inconsistent Power Supply

If you experience frequent power surges or voltage fluctuations, it’s crucial to have your electrical system assessed. Inconsistent power supply can damage sensitive electronic devices and appliances. Upgrading your electrical system will provide stable and reliable power throughout your home.

Recognizing the signs that your Colorado home needs electrical upgrades is crucial for the safety, functionality, and convenience of your property. Whether it’s addressing outdated wiring, upgrading the electrical panel, or installing additional outlets, investing in electrical upgrades will enhance your home’s electrical system and provide peace of mind.

Contact Always On Electric, Inc. at (970) 309-2616 today or visit us online for more information on how we can help you with your electrical upgrades in your home.

 

Signs You Need a Residential Electrician

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Residential ElectricianDo you have electrical circuit breakers in your home that are tripping on you all the time? This could potentially indicate a big problem with your home’s electrical system. It’s important for you to call a residential electrician right away so that they can take a closer look at the issue.

There are also other signs that you need to touch base with an electrician sooner than later. Check them out below.

Flickering lights

If the lights in your home flicker every once in a blue moon, it might not be the end of the world. Nevertheless, if you notice that your lights are flickering or even turning off completely on an almost daily basis, you shouldn’t ignore it. This is more than likely a sign that you should have a residential electrician come to evaluate your electrical system.

Warm outlets or switches

Feel the outlets and switches in your home every now and then to see if they’re warm. If they are, there is a decent chance that you have some kind of electrical issue on your hands. If the problem starts to spiral out of control, it’s not uncommon for the wall surrounding an outlet or switch to get warm, too.

Old electrical wiring

The electrical wiring that you have in your home is not supposed to last for decades and decades on end. Most electrical wiring is only designed to last for about 25 years before it needs to be replaced. It’s a good idea to have a residential electrician inspect and possibly replace old electrical wiring before it causes issues for you.

The next time you notice one of these signs of trouble, let Always on Electric come out to your home and provide you with residential electrical services. Call us at 970-309-2616 today to set up an appointment.

Steps to Take if Your Circuit Breaker Trips

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Tripped Circuit Breaker If a circuit breaker in your electrical panel trips, it’s actually not the worst thing in the world. Your circuit breakers are designed to protect the electric circuits in your electrical panel from getting damaged. Nevertheless, there are some steps you should take if a circuit breaker in your home trips.

Check them out below:

Find the Electrical Panel

The first thing you’ll need to do after a circuit breaker trips is locate your home’s electrical panel, if you don’t know where it is. These panels can be located in a variety of places, but more often than not, they’ll be in your garage or basement.

Reset the Tripped Circuit Breaker

Resetting a circuit breaker that has tripped is easy to do. All you need to do is open up your electrical panel, find the electrical circuit that is facing a different direction than all the others, and flip it back on. This should restore power to the area of your home where it went out when the circuit breaker tripped.

Make Sure the Power Stays On

In some cases, a circuit breaker might trip again after you have flipped a circuit back on. This is the sign of a problem. You may have an overloaded circuit somewhere in your home. You may also have a short circuit. A ground fault could also be to blame. Whatever the case, it’s important to find the cause of the tripped circuit breaker.

Contact a Residential Electrician for Help

If you can’t find what’s causing your circuit breaker to trip, you should avoid flipping your electrical circuit back on and contact an electrician for help. Otherwise, you could do some real damage to your electrical circuits and potentially even start a fire in your home.

Always on Electric can help you with tripped circuit breakers and any other electrical issues you face in your home. Call us at 970-309-2616 today to schedule an appointment with an electrician.

Electrical Safety Tips for Kids

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Electrical Tips for Children If you have kids in the home, whether they’re always there because they’re yours or they’re just visiting, it’s a good idea to go over some electrical safety basics with them.

Electrical Safety Precautions to Share With Your Children

For instance, tell kids not to plug too many things into one outlet or overload an extension cord. As much as it seems like “no big deal” to do so, the truth is that having too many things plugged into one or two outlets can end up overwhelming the circuit. At worst a fire could result, and nobody wants that to happen.

Speaking of outlets, with kids around it makes sense to have parents or the adults-in-charge put safety caps on all unused electrical outlets. Not only does this help save energy by stopping cold drafts, but it also prevents babies and toddlers and others from sticking their fingers into the outlet area where they could get a bad shock or worse.

Teach kids not to yank cords from the wall. Instead, teach them to literally go up to the outlet and pull the cord out from it right there. If and when a cord is pulled from anywhere besides its head, damage can be done to the plug, the outlet and/or the appliance.

Another thing: cords need to be kept out of the way so people don’t trip over them. Furthermore, if a cord can be placed in such a way that a pet can’t easily get to it, that’s great– too many dogs and cats have chewed cords and gotten shocked– not good. With little kids around, too, it’s best to find ways to keep them away from cords whenever possible– they’re not toys to be played with.

Kids also need to be taught that water and electricity don’t mix. So, for instance, they have to be extra careful in the bathroom when using things like a hair dryer near the sink, toilet or bathtub.

Finally, with regards to electricity outdoors, kids should know not to play on or near electrical boxes/substations. They need to stay away from power lines. And if they fly a kite, which kids like to do, make sure they’re not flying the kite anywhere near power lines.

If you need help repairing the electrical lines in your home, contact the experts at Always on Electric, Inc. today.

When is it Time to Upgrade Your Electrical Wiring?

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Electrical Wiring Most people don’t think much about the electrical wiring in their home, unless or until something goes wrong. For instance, the big football game is coming up on TV and people are gathered at your house to see it. A couple minutes before the game starts the TV inexplicably turns off. Nothing seems to work to get it back on. Maybe it was a blown fuse? Maybe it was something else? Whatever it was, it’s frustratingly irritating!

Signs You Need to Upgrade Your Electrical Wiring

When is it time to upgrade your electrical wiring? For most people, if their house is over 40 years old, then it’s time. Things have changed a lot since the original electrical work was installed. Think about how much different our world is today– back then, they didn’t have the kind of devices and appliances we have now, like microwaves, desktop computers, and tablets. Furthermore, if you have several people living in a house trying to plug all their stuff in at once, you might have run out of outlets– so it’s time to expand the number of outlets in your home to properly accommodate the power needs of all the people who live there.

One thing that might scare you– and it should– is that faulty wiring is a leading cause of house fires. The older your house is, the more likely the wiring is outdated and/or unsafe… which could very well lead to a fire. You don’t want that. You want wiring that’s “up to code,” or, more importantly, up to the current code.

Hire a Professional Electrician

When’s the last time your wiring was professionally inspected? Most of you would say, “I have no idea.” Others might say, “When we first bought the house.” If it has been “some time” since it was checked, make it a priority this year to have a company like Always On Electric come take a look at what’s going on in your house with your electrical wires.

You’ll especially want to have your wiring checked if you’ve noticed fuses are blowing repeatedly, lights are flickering or dimming, you smell burning coming from a certain room or appliance, or– don’t laugh– you get a tingling sensation when you touch a certain appliance.

Your wiring should also be inspected if you’ve noticed particularly warm outlets or ones that have become discolored or spark when you plug things into them.

Call 970-309-2616 to connect with Always On Electric.

Prepare for Cooler Weather with New Electrical Equipment

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Fall is here, which makes this a good time to start thinking about winter electrical installations. Each season has its own electrical demands, like air conditioning in summer. As fall continues, it is a good time to consider any upcoming electrical projects or needs before the weather turns cold.

Frozen PipeCommercial

Heat tape systems can be used for several applications, including freeze protection for pipes and tanks, maintaining hot water temperature, de-icing and snow melting. Our experienced electricians can install a new heat tape system for your commercial property that will meet your needs and keep plumbing fixtures free of freezing problems.

Residential

Is it time for a new boiler or hot tub at your home? The skilled electricians at Always On Electric can safely complete the power installation for your new hot tub, boiler or steamer.

Tired of the power going out during winter storms? Always On Electric has you covered here, too, with professional back-up generator solutions. Don’t take a chance on your safety and comfort this winter!

Agricultural

The agricultural industry works year-round, with no break for bad weather. Winter brings unique challenges for farmers and ranchers because of water troughs or buckets icing over whenever temperatures fall below freezing. Trough heaters are the solution to the common wintertime chore of breaking up ice so that animals can drink.

Industrial

Severe winter cold can shut down an entire truck fleet, but using engine block heaters can help ensure your trucks will start in the morning after a long, cold night. Of course, each heater requires a fair amount of electrical power, and powering multiple truck heaters will probably require some new wiring. Our electricians can help you safely add the connections you need to power your truck heaters this winter.

Always On Electric provides a full range of electrical services for clients throughout western Colorado. Contact us today at 970-309-2616 to prepare for fall with new electrical equipment and wiring installations.

Ways to Save on Your Commercial Electric Bills

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Businesses looking to save on their electric bills can make several simple changes that add up to big savings throughout the year. No matter if you operate a small office with a few employees or have a bigger business that requires a larger number of electrical devices, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the amount of money you can save with minimal effort.

Saving money on electricl bills with LED lighting

Get an energy efficiency audit

A great way to get started with lowering your business’ electric costs is by hiring a professional electrical company to come and look at your site. The electrician will spot a few ways in which you can be saving on your energy usage and will give advice on what you can do to fix the issues.

Common things that can be found in an energy-efficiency audit include air leaks, insulation issues and inefficient lighting.

It is suggested to also do an after-hours audit on your own once you have gotten an energy audit from an electrician. It’s best to do the audit a few hours after workers have gone home, or even on the weekend, to see what devices and lights stay on when people are out of the office.

Switch to LED lighting

Another way to save big on your commercial electric bills is by making the switch to LED lighting. This lighting not only emits less heat that incandescent and halogen lights, it uses roughly 75 to 80% less energy overall.

After you’ve made the switch to a LED system, you can save further by installing motion sensor lighting or by simply reminding people to turn lights off once they leave a meeting area or lunchroom. Creating more natural light can also create big savings by encouraging workers to leave lights off during the day.

Choose laptops over desktops

Replacing older desktop computers with laptops is a great way to save money. When you need new computers at your commercial site, be forward thinking and choose this energy-efficient option.

Laptops use less power than their clunky counterparts and many workers will even take the laptops home at the end of the day, avoiding overnight energy costs for your business. Even better, laptops allow employees to work from home with ease, which can create greater savings.

When you want to save on your business’ electric bills, we are the licensed and certified commercial electrical team to choose in Western Colorado at Always On Electric. Our electricians will be happy to come to your commercial site and offer our opinion on ways to save on your energy bills. We can also assist with any LED lighting installation, service upgrades, building lighting and more. Call our experienced electrical team at 970.309.2616 to get started!

Warning Signs It’s Time to Re-wire Your Home

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Re-Wiring Home Does it feel like you blow a fuse at least once or twice every week? There’s a chance that you could have too many appliances plugged into one circuit. There’s also a chance that your home’s electrical system might be outdated and that you could benefit from rewiring your entire home in the near future. Take a look at some of the other warning signs you’ll likely notice when it’s time to rewire your house.

Your home is more than 40 years old.

Electrical systems have advanced a lot over the course of the last few decades. So if you have a home that was built 40 years ago or more and you’re still using the original electrical system, it’s probably just about time to think about updating your system. By rewiring your home, you can make it a lot safer and avoid many of the potential problems that come along with using an older system.

Your home has aluminum wiring in it.

Speaking of outdated electrical systems, there was a time when many systems relied on aluminum wiring. That is, until electricians started to figure out that many aluminum wires ended up causing fires once they got old. Today’s electrical systems rely on copper wiring as opposed to aluminum and are noticeably safer. You should consider going with copper if you still have aluminum in your home.

Your home has certain outlets that have stopped working altogether.

Are you running extension cords all over your house to power up certain rooms? This might seem like a reasonable solution, but extension cords should not be used for this purpose. You should have an electrician come take a look at your nonfunctional outlets. They might be repairable, or they might be a sign of a larger problem within your home’s electrical system.

Is it time for you to update your home’s electrical system? Always on Electric can help you with it. Call us at 970-309-2616 today to set up an appointment with one of our reliable and experienced electricians.

Leading Causes of Electrical Fires

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Although they may only account for a fraction of residential fires, electrical fires can be devastating and even fatal. To prevent your having any issues at your home, be sure to check the following areas of your house that are the most common places where electrical fires start.

Failed Electrical OutletOutlets

If you go to plug in an appliance and nothing happens, it could be a sign that the wiring leading to the outlet might be loose. In this compromised state, the wiring could be exposed behind the call, potentially leading to contact with wall insulation or causing sparking behind the outlet. To fix this situation, have an electrician come out and look for the cause of the outlet failure and make any necessary repairs to the connection or the outlet itself.

Appliances

Speaking of appliances, whenever a power cord becomes frayed or starts to fall apart, you should have the connection repaired or replace the cable, if possible. Exposed wires can be dangerous for anyone using the appliance and can allow heat transfer from the connection to combustible surfaces that the cord may be set on. In fact, faulty appliance connections and outlets are the leading causes of home fires. Also, if you feel a mild shock or tingle when touching an appliance, it often is a sign of a ground fault or incorrect wiring. Don’t simply ignore it – call an appliance repair professional or electrician to come take a look.

Circuit Breakers

Although circuit breakers are meant to prevent a circuit from overloading, sometimes they can do their job a little too much and that’s a problem. Modern equipment and technology often requires more power than devices even a few years ago, which can put extra strain on an outdated circuit breaker. If your breaker continues to trip, it is time to contact an electrician. An older breaker box can have wear that prevents the circuit from being thrown properly or allow an overload to start a fire. Be safe, not sorry, and call an electrician to investigate and replace your breaker box, if needed.

Light Fixtures

Make sure that all of your light fixtures have bulbs that meet the proper wattage capability of the fixture. If the bulb’s wattage is too high, it could lead to an electrical fire. If you aren’t sure about the proper wattage, a simple way to test is to check the area around the fixture once you put a new light bulb in. If you feel heat, switch to a lower wattage bulb as the current one’s wattage is too high for that fixture.

If you think your home might have faulty wiring or the wiring is in need of repair, let Always on Electric help. We offer residential and commercial electrical services to keep your home or business protected from electrical fires. For more information, call us today at 970-309-2616!