Everyday Tips For Improved Electrical Safety

Improve your electrical safety and efficiency with some recommended electrician ideas in Port Melbourne. Follow some simple rules to ensure ...

Improve your electrical safety and efficiency with some recommended electrician ideas in Port Melbourne. Follow some simple rules to ensure you are not putting yourself or your family at unnecessary risk.

Remove plugs and cords straight out from the power socket. This might seem like a silly tip, but so often plugs are pulled out at an angle. Over time, this weakens the prongs and can even make you vulnerable to shocks or appliance short circuiting. Oftentimes the cord is yanked out from a distance, rather than physically bending down and gripping the plug itself. In bedrooms and workplaces, sockets are often in hard to reach areas but this is no excuse not to physically remove the plug horizontally if in a wall socket or vertically if in a floor power board.

Most people appreciate that installing energy efficient bulbs is a good thing, but actually implementing it can be a bit of a chore. Besides this, the initial cost of replacing all light bulbs at once can be inconvenient. A lot of people tend to just say that when each globe blows, they will replace it with a better LED or fluorescent one, and eventually the whole house lighting will be eco-friendly. This is not necessary a bad plan, however it makes a lot of sense to replace the most used bulbs immediately so that you can start to enjoy the benefits. So, what lights are these exactly? You may be surprised to learn that the outdoor porch or verandah light is one of the most used in the house. This sensor activated device is turned on every time someone or something sets it off, and is therefore likely to be in use even more than the kitchen or living room lights. Lights in a home office will also be used for longer periods of time every day. To put it in perspective, a fluorescent light with an energy star rating is more than 300 times more efficient than some older bulbs.



While there are some great simple tricks to maintain improved electrical safety much easier, there also exist some examples of bad or irresponsible so-called ‘hacks’ out there. A quick internet search will yield extensive listings of electrical ideas, not all of which hare particularly safe. One example was someone suggesting that you tie your extension cord and power cord in a simple knot so that the two plugs do not loosen. This is assuming that stepping on a cord is going to pull it out of the extension cord socket. First of all, there should be no reason to need to make sure your cord sockets are not pulled apart, because the cords should not be laid across walkways or in dangerous positions in the first place. Second, if you did trip or otherwise pull a cord while it is knotted, you are going to cause more damage. The plug being pulled out is actually avoiding excess strain being placed on the cords themselves. Stumbling on a knotted cord is going to mean that the plastic cabling is weakened, as well as the wires inside being bent to an angle for which they were not intended.

Another terrible example is someone cutting a hole out of a number of ping pong balls, and repurposing them as lampshades. This particular person slotted the balls over the top of each bulb in a string of fairy lights to create a Hollywood dressing room style string of globes. Unfortunately, ping pong ball plastic is not designed for this purpose and could actually melt or create a fire hazard. The same goes for a number of DIY lamp shade craft activities that have no regard for safety. For further questions, do not hesitate to chat to the Reliable Electrician Team in Port Melbourne at Electricians On Call.