The Homeowner's Guide To Electrical Maintenance

Unless you happen to be an electrician, there are very few electrical tasks that you can do yourself without risk of issue or injury, but there are a few items of electrical maintenance that are important for homeowners to keep on top of throughout the year. 

Ensuring that you’re properly maintaining your electronics, outlets, electrical box, and GFIs will ensure that you prevent and catch any issues before they turn into safety concerns. Luckily, it doesn’t take much skill or time to keep on top of electrical home maintenance! 

Electrical Box

Once or twice a year it’s a good idea to do a thorough inspection of your electrical box. A circuit breaker will look like a light switch. They should be pointed toward the center of the box. If they’re not, then you’ll need to click them one by one all the way toward the outside, and then snap them back to the center. 

Next, look at the breakers and check to make sure that they’re all labelled. If they’re not, then it’s time to do that. You never want to be in an emergency situation and unsure of what breaker leads to where.

To label your breakers, turn on all of the lights in your house and grab a small lamp. Flip the first unlabelled breaker and walk around the house until you find the area without lights. Test the outlets in that room as well with your lamp. Label that breaker so that you’ll remember which area of the home it is for. You can flip that breaker back on. Move down to the next unlabelled breaker and repeat the process until you know what area of the house each breaker is connected to. 

GFI (Ground Fault Interrupter)

If you’ve ever looked carefully at the outlets located in your bathroom, outside your home, in your garage, or even close by to a kitchen or laundry room sink, you’ll probably have noticed that they look slightly different than a normal outlet. They have two small buttons, one that is often red. These are called GFI outlets. They’re placed in areas that can be wet, damp, or moist. These outlets can trip easily and are meant to prevent electrical shock. If your power ever goes out due to a storm, it can often trip these outlets. 

When the GFI is tripped, it won’t bring power to anything plugged in. Unplug everything from it and simply press the reset button on the GFI (this is often the red button and might even be popped out a little). You can immediately plug in whatever you were trying to use and it will be good to go. If it still doesn’t work, then there is a bigger issue at hand that will require an electrician. 

Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors

Twice a year you should test out your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. They will have a “test” button that you can press to make sure that they still have the battery left and are working correctly. If any do not work, replace them (or their battery) immediately. 

Computers and Electronics

It’s a good idea to give your electronics a good cleaning every three months or so to keep them working optimally. Any electronics in more dusty areas should be cleaned more often. Dust can collect and cause your electronics to work harder than they need to, which can overheat them or shorten their lifespan. 

Turn off and unplug your electronics and computers before cleaning them. If you have anything plugged into the appliance (such as a speaker or camera) make sure to unplug those things as well. Use a lint-free cloth to clean all of the surfaces of the electronics. You can use a can of compressed air to clean the dust in hard-to-reach places. For your computer, make sure to remove the side panel (and front, if possible) to allow the compressed air to reach inside and remove dust from within the tower. 

Never use a cleaning solution to clean electronics or computers and never use a vacuum to clean out the inside of your computer tower as it can result in damage. 

Outlets

It’s important to check your outlets every few months or so to make sure that they’re all still working. You can do this with a lamp, or you can buy an outlet tester at a hardware store (you won’t need to break the bank for these, they can be quite affordable). Make sure that you’re moving furniture and heading into those rarely-used spots in the home to make sure that you’re testing ALL of the outlets. 

While you’re testing for whether or not they’re actually working, also check the plates for things like discolouration, which could be the result of plastic burning or even cracks. If you find anything amiss, make sure that you contact a local electrician. 

While you’re checking outlets, unplug anything that isn’t in use. Many of us leave small appliances like toasters plugged in when they’re not in use, but it’s not a great idea. A surge of power can damage the product, there can be a risk of an electrical fire, and even things that are plugged in but not turned on still use electricity, so you’re paying for that product to be plugged in and not used. The bottom line? It’s better to just unplug anything that you’re not using or don’t use often enough to justify it being left plugged in.