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Whatever you celebrate, the end of the year brings out a lot of family and cultural traditions that are so fun to decorate for. Everything from Halloween to HAnnukkah is a new opportunity to decorate with lights or props to get your friends and family in the holiday mood.
However, it’s so important to decorate safely because a house fire or blackout is no cause for celebration. So, before you start getting too deep into holiday decorations, listen to our holiday electrical safety tips so you can celebrate safely.
Electrical Inspections
Depending on how crazy you decide to get with holiday lights and decorations, an electrical inspection is a great way to leave things to the professionals and ensure that you have an entirely safe setup. Our pros use a variety of techniques to inspect wiring including infrared scanning to detect areas of high heat.
Overheated wiring can cause home fires and overworked outlets could easily cause a power outage. We’ll be sure to scan everything and give you advice on how you can decorate safely. If you want to have the brightest house on the block this is a must, but truly anyone can benefit from an electrical inspection.
Be Aware of Warning Signs
If you’re not ready to fully commit to a full electrical inspection perhaps you’re waiting to see if things might go wrong. While this might not be the most cautious approach, we definitely understand that point of view. If you don’t want to go for a full inspection just yet, watch out for these warning signs.
Your lights frequently dim.
Your light flicker or buzz often.
An outlet feels hot to the touch
You smell strange odors.
Messy and tangled wiring.
Little things like this can go a long way towards keeping your family safe, so it’s so important to keep an eye out especially after you’ve installed a bunch of lights on or throughout your home.
Make Sure Your Safety Protocols Are Ready to Go
When people think of electrical powered appliances, they may think of their air conditioner, fidge, or clothes’ dryer. While these appliances are great, they aren’t typically machines that can save your life in an instant. A smoke detector and a carbon monoxide detector are both machines that you absolutely need to be ready to go if things go wrong. These devices can literally save lives by warning us of things going wrong.
With holiday lights and flammable decorations, this time of year is a huge time for house fires.
Functioning detectors are necessary right now, so make sure yours are charged up and ready to do their job.
How You Can Decorate Safely
So, far we’ve given you great preventative measures to lower your risk of a house fire caused by electrical problems. However, we haven’t really touched on how we would decorate a home safely. We figured why not leave them for the end, so here we go!
Christmas Tree
It’s no secret that fires love Christmas trees. Still, they are such a fun tradition, so why not do it safely. First, it’s important that your tree isn’t too dry. Water it if you can and don’t have it be blown on by a fan all day for example. The more moisture the tree retains the less likely it is to cause problems.
Secondly, don’t run your lights all the time. Something as simple as turning them off before night is a great way to sleep with some peace of mind. No one is going to see that your Christmas tree lights aren’t on in the middle of the night, so why not give them a bit of a break.
If you need our services or would like to learn more, just give us a call at (240) 348-9566 or fill out our online contact form!