Electricity is the flow of electrons. This sounds rather complex, and in some ways, it really is. But many years of innovation have made it fairly simple for the average person to have and use electricity in their home. An electrician can run wires from the public electric lines to your home. They can then set up a panel box with multiple circuits to power all of your appliances, lights, and other electronics. All you have to do is plug things in and maybe flip a few switches. That's pretty awesome, and we decided to write more about it on this blog about electricians.
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Many people deal with residential electrical work on their own. However, even the most competent folks will pay a home electrician to handle certain projects. You might wonder how you can tell if a job calls for a residential electrician. Homeowners can use these three criteria to decide.
Licensing Requirements
Some projects require a licensed electrician. Generally speaking, the closer a job is to the electric company's connection to your house, the more likely a licensed electrician has to do the work. If you're installing or replacing the main panel, for example, that's a job for a licensed professional. Otherwise, you may be taking on significant liability if your work damages the electric company's hardware. Risking millions of dollars in damage to save a few hundred bucks isn't a winning choice.
Electrocution Risk
All electrical systems carry some risk of electrocuting you. Most of the time, though, you can turn off the breakers for the room where you'll be working. If you want to put in a ceiling fan or replace a damaged light switch, for example, there's nothing wrong with handling the job by yourself as long as you know how to safely cut the power to a room. Make sure everything is properly labeled, and then check the systems in the room for signs that the juice is still on.
Conversely, some systems can be significantly more dangerous. You don't want to mess with anything that stores a charge. If you need to rewire a house that uses batteries to store power from solar panels, for example, you have to be careful about accidental discharges. Not only is there a physical risk to you, but a discharge could damage the equipment.
Design
Proper electrical system design can save you significant money over the life of a house. Most systems use a system that has at least two rails of electricity. Running too many systems on one rail and not the other can lead to disproportionately high electricity bills because it can produce unbalanced peaks.
The design also matters in terms of safety. If you're going to have several high-draw systems in a house, for example, you want them running on independent lines from the box. Placing the refrigerator and HVAC unit on the same line risks overloading the system. The best-case scenario is that you blow some components out, and the worst-case scenario is that it starts a fire. Always have a residential electrician design your home's system.
For more information, contact a residential electrician near you.
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