Top 10 Electrical Problems That You Can Fix Yourself!
Important Disclaimer: First and foremost electricity is extremely dangerous. If at any time you feel uncomfortable or don’t understand the problem, please seek the help of a professional. This article is written to help someone with a basic troubleshoot or understand better the problem with common electrical issues around the home.
Electricity explained: Someone once told me they were scared of working with electricity because they couldn’t see it or smell it. While that is true, if you begin to understand the basics of how electricity works, you will be safer and have a better chance in location then correcting the issue. I have been training technicians for most of my life and sometimes it’s easier to explain something as an analog explanation. I have found that using water as a comparison often helps to break down the mental image of what electricity is and how it works.
Electricity is like Water – well sort of!
Potential Energy is the amount of available electricity POWER or STORED energy in a battery as an example. An analog comparison would be a water tower FULL of water. This is the Potential or Battery.
Resistance and Distance. You could think of a wire as a pipe. Now the larger the pipe the more water can flow to an area. So if you can think of a wire as a pipe the larger the wire the more electricity can flow through it.
Voltage. You could think of voltage as pressure. Using our water tank example, the HIGHER the water tank is in the air the more POTENTIAL energy or PRESSURE a pipe will have. So the higher the voltage, the more potential energy can be pushed down the wire.
So in our model some interesting things are happening. We are seeing that there is a relationship between how much water can flow based on how big the pipe is, how far it has to travel and how big the pipe needs to be to carry the load.
Where does water want to go? Oh yes water wants to go into the GROUND. So does electricity. It wants to seek the least resistant way to get to ground. Another way of thinking about it is visualizing a leak in a dyke. We have all heard the story of a boy who put his finger in the dyke to stop the flow of water. The smaller the hole the less force is needed to stop the water from spilling. If there is no stopping the water it can quickly get out of control and burst the dam. Or even break a pipe. This is what breakers do in electricity. They stop the flow of electricity by preventing a way to go to ground. Breakers give us a way to control the flow of electricity.
For more reading on electric circuit breakers, please refer to the following link.
However, I strongly warn you: DO NOT STICK YOUR FINGER IN AN OUTLET AND BECOME A PATH TO GROUND. A good way to ensure or reduce the probability of shock is to turn off your main breaker. This breaker is like the main source of electricity into your home. It is located usually near your main meter base. Often located outside it will have a very large amp rating. Typically it is from 100 to 250 amp but can be smaller or larger depending on the size and needs of the home or building. If this is turned to the off position, it will most likely turn off all power. Additionally, if you turn a breaker off put a sign or label warning others to NOT turn on.
Ok now that we understand what electricity is, here are some ways you Top 10 Electrical Problems That You Can Fix Yourself!
1. Faulty Outlet Not Work
Simple Solutions first. Check to make sure the outlet is not on a switch in the same room. Often electricians will divide half or all of the outlet and connect it to a switch on the wall. This is so a lamp can be controlled when entering or leaving a room. A GFCI outlet is usually installed to protect users from shock if you accidentally cut into an extension cord or drop an appliance in the sink. These outlets have a test and reset button to reset the circuit. Often these GFCI or ground interrupted outlets go bad. If the circuit is in the kitchen, bathroom or outside, suspect this first.
2. Light won’t turn on unless I bang my first on the wall.
This is a common problem and a good chance that the switch has a loose connection inside, is having to bump or bang a switch around. Quite often it is not the switch but simply a loose wire either stabbed into the switch or loose on the crew terminal. For many years electricians use the stab method on the back of an outlet or switch. This stabbing of the wire I have found can heat up and cool off causing a loose or intermittent connection. Make sure the power is OFF and then re-strip the wire and use the screw terminal next to the stab hole to make a better connection.
3. Breaker continues to trip even when I’m not using any power.
A breaker can actually get weak in time. A really good way to spot a potential weak breaker is to put a small amount of force with your finger pushing the breaker towards the off position. Compare other breakers tension to the breaker that keeps triggering. If it is a lot easier to turn off, then the other breakers, suspect a bad breaker and replace it.
4. Garbage Disposal Stop Working.
On the bottom of most garbage disposals there is a small reset switch. Check to see if this has been tripped. Also, most garbage disposals have a dedicated circuit and may have its own breaker. Additionally use a BROOM handle to free debris from disposal. I MUST EMPHASIZE- NEVER put your hand inside the unit.
5. Air Conditioner Not Cooling Adequately.
There are two major components on most air conditioner units. An air handler inside and a compressor outside. A common electrical issue is the breaker on the OUTSIDE unit is tripped or disconnected. If the breaker outside and inside are on, check to see if the one inside the air handler closet is on. Often these get turned off accidentally.
6. Lights no longer come on at night.
There is a small eye usually mounted to an electrical box on the outside of the home. This is a photocell that detects nighttime. Often these devices will go out and need to be replaced.
7. AVR Auto Voltage Regulating Not Working.
AVR Auto Voltage Regulating is a battery backup and surge arrester used in the computer world to protect valuable hard drives. This type of battery backup conditions the electricity being fed from its outputs. This is especially important when trying to protect computers, televisions, camera systems and other electrical devices. The important thing is to MAKE SURE ITS AVR rated.
8. Constant blowing of light bulbs and damage to my other home electronics.
On the outside of your home, at the meter base is a bare copper wire that comes out of your meter base and down the wall. This should be FIRMLY connected to a six foot rod that was driven into the ground when your home was built. Often this has become loose or is not enough to maintain a good ground on your home. You can also add another ground rod to your service be driving another rod into the ground six foot away and attaching to the other ground wire with a number #4 AWG bare copper wire. This will insure that access voltage will go to ground and not over volt your home electronics.
9. How to look younger in the bathroom – yes, this is a real thing!
Yes that’s right. Here is a little lighting trick. In your bathroom, replace the light bulbs, preferably fluorescent bulbs with ones that have a slight pink hue. If you look on light bulb packaging you will find them. This pink light gives you a much younger youthful glow. Hey, maybe it’s not broken but that’s still pretty cool!
10. Stop your dog from barking when the phone rings!
As a service electrician, every once in a while you get a call that you don’t really believe. I had a customer call and leave a message letting us know her phone no longer worked. Calling the client we got an answer and thought the problem must have corrected itself as she informed us the phone was still broke. We asked how she knew to answer the phone and she replied the dog is barking. As it turns out, the poor dog had been chained to the ground block on the phone access point into the building. The poor dog had been getting a small amount of AC voltage whenever the phone rings. Now I love animals and this was a sad moment but I was glad to have figured out the cause. After we found a better place to anchor our best friend I asked the lady how long this was going on. She said with tears in her eyes for several months. I asked her why did you wait so long to call us? She said well the other day I found out I had been missing several calls. Additionally the dog had found a safe place. On top of his dog house. You see just like I said. It just wants to go to ground.. just like water!
Check out our other interesting article in this How-to-do series that we have written just for you!
