Follow These Electrical Safety Tips When Decorating for the Holidays

The holiday season can be magical. In Evansville, the temperatures drop, and our warm homes become so inviting. They can feel even more welcoming and festive if you put up decorations. At Sims Electrical, Plumbing, & Mechanical, we want our local neighbors to have fun with their decorations but also want people to be safe. There are several tips that you can follow in order to protect yourself, your family, and your home.

Right now, you might have a few things plugged into the outlets in your living room, and there may or may not be anything plugged into outlets in your garage or on your exterior walls. During the upcoming holiday season, the scenario could be very different. Many of us in Evansville have holiday lights that we like to put up and decorations that we need to plug in so they can light up, too. A concerning situation would be if too many items are plugged into a particular circuit. This could cause the circuit breaker to trip, meaning that you wouldn’t have any power sent to certain outlets. It could also lead to overheating, which could damage wiring insulation and potentially lead to sparks or smoke being emitted.

Be strategic about your use of electricity, and never chain a bunch of power strips together. You could call a professional to assess whether your circuit breakers and electrical panel have the optimal configuration for what you plan on doing. When our team goes out to homes around the area, we can check things out as well as assess whether a place is up to code. Sometimes, older Evansville homes don’t have the right upgrades needed to keep them safe. It’s always a good idea to have this taken care of as soon as possible.

Decorative incandescent lights are commonly found in many homes in the area, especially among households that have been using the same lights for years. Unfortunately, these kinds of lights tend to be very hot. They have the potential to cause the insulation on wiring to melt, and they could even cause a fire if they’re touching a dry Christmas tree or a flammable decoration. LEDs, in contrast, are cooler and don’t pose this same hazard.

Using indoor lights or indoor decorations outside is a bad idea. This is because the snow and rain that we can get in the winter in Indiana can damage those items. One likely situation would be that your lights and decor simply won’t turn on. Something else could happen, too. The internal components could be compromised so that the electricity starts to flow where it shouldn’t. You could get shocked, and sparks could potentially fly.

These tips can keep everyone safe and happy this winter. Call us at Sims Electrical, Plumbing, & Mechanical for more information.

The post Follow These Electrical Safety Tips When Decorating for the Holidays appeared first on Sims Electrical, Plumbing, & Mechanical.