Latest / Lipps Electric Podcast / What Are The Hidden Dangers Of Faulty Outlets?

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What Are The Hidden Dangers Of Faulty Outlets? · Lipps Electric Podcast

• 0:02
  Most of us have electricity in our houses today, and I say that most of us.
• 0:06
  I think that unless you're living out off the grid, you have electricity,
• 0:10
  and it's very important. I brought an electrical expert onto the program today.
• 0:14
  His name is Kevin Lips. Kevin, how are you?
• 0:17
  I'm awesome, Jim. Great to be here. It's great to have you here.
• 0:21
  Hey, some questions have come into the radio program, and you're my expert here
• 0:27
  today on the show, so I have a question for you. And I think I know the answer
• 0:31
  to an extent, but I think there are multiple answers to this.
• 0:34
  And that is, what are the hidden dangers of faulty outlets?
• 0:40
  So the outlet, of course, is where people put the plug in for an appliance or a lamp.
• 0:44
  So what are some of the hidden dangers that we may not see with our eyes?
• 0:49
  Sure. Great question. So really, the quick answer to the hidden dangers of faulty
• 0:54
  outlets really includes there can be safety hazards.
• 0:58
  And that's for all humans. It's an adult or a child.
• 1:02
  The risk of electric shock, appliances can be damaged. You can overload circuits.
• 1:08
  Hidden arcing is a scary one. Code violations.
• 1:13
  And in some circumstances, it can cause electrical fires.
• 1:17
  Yeah. And I forgot what the numbers are, but there are so many incidences on
• 1:25
  an annual basis of houses burning down in the United States of America.
• 1:29
  From electrical fires alone, not a stove fire and so forth.
• 1:34
  I think electrical fires are toward the top of that list.
• 1:37
  You're not, that's 100% accurate.
• 1:39
  And really the outlets can, the number that I have, and we tend to emphasize
• 1:46
  this a lot, is one of the major fire risks of parking from outlets,
• 1:52
  there's been over 28,000 fires annually is the number.
• 1:56
  That's a lot. And so what a lot of people don't understand is the electrical
• 2:02
  system in your house, if it was designed properly, should not be messed with.
• 2:08
  So there's different gauge wire that go into the outlet and that ultimately
• 2:13
  goes through, in some cases, switches.
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  And then the ultimate switch before the main switch is the breaker.
• 2:21
  And depending upon what type of outlet is designed to to carry a load so for
• 2:27
  instance if it's an appliance it's going to be you know bigger than just four
• 2:32
  lamps and so my point is is.
• 2:35
  One way I think to be safe as a homeowner, don't mess with things.
• 2:41
  So if the breaker says 20, that's 20 amp, don't put a 15 in, okay?
• 2:47
  There's different gauge wire. Don't start messing with wire if it was done right.
• 2:51
  But you know what I also suggest is having a great qualified company like yourselves
• 2:55
  go out to the home and you guys can take a look at all that, right?
• 2:59
  And see if something may not be right. Maybe it's an older house and maybe the
• 3:04
  codes have changed and maybe people need to get some things rewired.
• 3:07
  Yes, all wonderful points. And I would like to start with saying the home's
• 3:13
  number one neglected system is the electrical system.
• 3:18
  And yeah, you shouldn't touch it unless you know what you're doing with it.
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  But think about the last time you've had a professional inspect and do a system
• 3:28
  diagnosis in your home for your home's electrical system. And that's what we offer.
• 3:35
  You know you're right um it really doesn't have moving parts so you know the
• 3:41
  hvac system heating and air conditioning
• 3:43
  system moving parts if it doesn't work we're too hot or too cold,
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  the plumbing could be leaking there's a drain backup so that's obvious and we
• 3:52
  need to get that fixed right away the electrical system is pretty quiet too
• 3:57
  now if you're hearing a humming that's a sign. Okay.
• 4:00
  So it should be pretty quiet. Um, if the breaker is tripping all the time,
• 4:06
  meaning you have to go into that panel, open the door up and move that switch called the breaker.
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  If it's tripping all the time, you've got a problem, especially if something's
• 4:16
  not plugged into, to the circuit, you've really got a problem.
• 4:20
  And, um, I would recommend periodically having the electrical system checked.
• 4:27
  Is that something you guys do at LIPS?
• 4:29
  We do. We have a home care program where we'll come out annually and do a preventative
• 4:35
  maintenance inspection and a light servicing of your system.
• 4:39
  And it comes with a bunch of priority scheduling and there's even a coupon book that comes with it.
• 4:45
  But it's important and it's something that We really are trying to change the
• 4:51
  game of getting us, or not just us, but getting your home electrical system looked at annually.
• 4:58
  I agree. It should be with the plumber, with the HVAC system,
• 5:04
  all the other major components of the house.
• 5:09
  The big three are electric plumbing and HVAC. Those are important systems in a home.
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  And I'll tell you one thing, plumbing doesn't usually burn a house down.
• 5:22
  Your air conditioning system, a heating system, a little less than the electric
• 5:26
  for sure. So you want to make sure that it's safe. You don't want to get shocked.
• 5:32
  God forbid someone gets electrocuted and you don't want the house to burn down.
• 5:38
  And also simply, you don't want to have an appliance get fried because things
• 5:47
  aren't wired properly or protected properly.
• 5:49
  In a future program, we should talk about surge protection because that's something
• 5:55
  else too, part of your electrical system.
• 5:56
  I know you guys can really help
• 5:58
  out that, maybe do a whole house surge protection, which would be great.
• 6:02
  And in order to do that, you need to check the whole system.
• 6:04
  And I think that would be a good idea for people.
• 6:07
  Absolutely, yeah. And so like our company purpose, like when we talk about what
• 6:11
  we look at as a company and it's really to establish and make sure that our
• 6:15
  customers have safe electrical systems and they're tailored to what that customer is using it.
• 6:21
  Or how they use it and what's on it. So now electric vehicles are a new thing
• 6:26
  that's becoming a big load.
• 6:28
  Since COVID, now everybody wants additional heaters on their back porches.
• 6:32
  And electric heat is a very common thing to add because you don't have to run a gas line out there.
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  It's a little easier to get a wire, but it comes with additional load that will,
• 6:41
  your current system, whatever size it is, may or may not be able to handle.
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  And we can help on those areas too.
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  But, you know, we proactively try to identify and correct fire hazards,
• 6:53
  like faulty outlets or anything else that we've mentioned. We do it all the time.
• 6:58
  Our team continually improves our technical knowledge based on new codes,
• 7:04
  because codes change every few years as well, and they get implemented at different
• 7:09
  times depending on the authority having jurisdiction.
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  So if you're in Cincinnati, your code might be a little different than what
• 7:15
  it is across the river in northern Kentucky.
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  So it's it's just it's continuous improvement
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  and that's what we strive for um you
• 7:23
  know we went down a lot of the list but the ones that really
• 7:26
  happen a lot are microwaves trip um your garage freezer and then all of a sudden
• 7:33
  you lose um all the all the food in there which is always terrible um but the
• 7:38
  hidden dangers of the arcing behind the walls or are they prop were the outlets properly installed.
• 7:43
  You hear backstabs is the number one thing that electricians complain about.
• 7:50
  But we complain about it because those get loose.
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  And what causes the arc? Loose wires. Yes.
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  So it's just that type of stuff and focus. And our guys are trained to go in,
• 8:03
  pull out every device in the area or in the room, or, you know,
• 8:07
  we're not going to do it without your approval,
• 8:09
  but they'll, wherever you have us in there focused, we will give you a very
• 8:14
  good diagnosis of what's going on in that space.
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  And if you want, we can go further, but you know, we always do everything we
• 8:22
  can to, to really dig in and figure out what's going on.
• 8:26
  Yeah. This has been awesome. Kevin, as always, thank you so much for bringing
• 8:28
  your expertise here to the program. Right on, man. Thank you.