DIY home projects can be very rewarding, both in terms of significant money savings and the sense of accomplishment one would feel after successfully tackling a repair or home improvement task.

However, electrical repairs put you at risk of potential danger of electrocution. A simple mistake or negligence can also cause in electrical fires resulting in damage to properties and injuries, even deaths. This is why it is always recommended to contact a qualified electrician to troubleshoot and handle electrical problems in the home or business establishments.

Things to Consider BEFORE Tackling on DIY Electrical Repairs

If you are one of those DIYers who feel confident enough to make your own electrical repairs, and doing the repair on your own sounds practical for you, here are a few tips to remember when you work with electricity:

• Water is a good conductor of electricity. Never perform electrical repairs or operate electrical devices if your hands are wet. In the same way, don’t work with electricity if you are near or in damp areas.

• Always assume that overhead wires are live and potentially dangerous. Don’t attempt to touch or move it away by yourself. Instead, contact a professional to report the problem immediately.

• Make sure you turn off power from the source in the circuit that you want to work with before doing any repairs.

• See to it that you are aware of the code or rules in your area before attempting the repair.

• Make sure you have the appropriate tools and equipment needed to do the job correctly.

• For your protection, use insulated tools while working on electrical wiring system.

• When needed, use wooden ladder instead of the aluminum one to reduce the risk of shock hazard when working with electricity.

• When you have to disassemble parts, use printed diagrams to help you remember the right connections when putting the parts back.

Basic Electrical Theory and DIY Wiring Safety Tips

Check out this brief but informative video clip which covers a review of basic electrical theory which includes explanation about volts, amps, current, and resistance. The video also provides practical safety tips when working around with electricity, specifically about not working on a live circuit and how to use a voltage tester to make sure power is off to a circuit before undertaking the project.

Electrical Repairs: Why It’s Best Not to Do It Yourself

There are a number of reasons why electrical repairs are best left to the experts.

• Safety.

Working with any part of the electrical wiring system is extremely dangerous. It could put you at risk for electrocution and poor electrical repairs could result in a fire hazard.

• Codes and Local Requirements.

You may required to get a permit before doing an electrical project. There are certain local codes and requirements that should be followed when doing electrical wiring and repair.

• Knowledge, Training, and the Right Tools

Professional electricians have the necessary training and expertise to ensure electrical repair are handled correctly. They have the appropriate tools and latest technology allowing the to perform repairs and installations quickly and accurately.

• Saving You Money in the Long Term

Electrical wiring systems can be complex and it’s easy to make mistakes and end up messing the wires in your home. This can end up costing you more on unnecessary repairs or doing repeat jobs. Hiring an electrician ensures you get long term solution to the problem and avoid electrical issues that may arise later on.

Summing It Up

At the end of the day, your safety does not come with a price. There’s no point in trying to save money when you are putting your life, your family, and home in danger. Having a licensed electrician do any electrical repairs ensures the job gets done right, and you get safe and long-term solution to the problem which can save you time and money in the long run.

Electrical safety should be everyone’s foremost priority, and a huge part of being safe when dealing with electricity involves paying attention and understanding electrical safety signs.

Electrical warning signs are essential in that they warn people of potential electrical hazards and remind them that they are required to be cautious around electricity.

Why are Electrical Warning Signs So Important?

Electrical safety signs are common around workplaces – specifically in construction sites and factories where the use of electrical tools and equipment is required – as well as other buildings or locations where electricity can pose a danger. These warning signs are crucial for a variety of reasons:

• Prevent Injuries
• Health and Safety Regulations Compliance
• Keep Workers Safe When Using Equipment
• Mark Restricted Areas
• Keep Visitors Aware of the Hazards and the Danger Zones

Electrical hazards labels and warning signs are designed so as they are easily recognizable or identifiable, and the message is conveyed clearly and precisely. Some of the common signs include:

• Danger – High Voltage
• Danger – Do Not Enter
• Caution – Live Wires
• Caution – Buried Wires
• Danger – Hard Hat Area
• Danger – No Smoking Zone

A number of accidents involving electricity occur around the world and most of which could have been avoided if electrical warning signs were appropriately placed. As such electrical warning labels and signs are paramount to ensure safety in the workplace, prevent damages to properties, and even save lives. That said, they must not be ignored.

According to the US Fire Administration, electrical malfunctions are among the top four leading causes of residential fires in the US between 2007 and 2016. With this in mind, safety precautions should always be observed when it comes to home electrical wiring, specially if it involves the bathroom.

Water and Electricity – A Dangerous Mix

It’s a known fact that water and electricity are a deadly combination. With the bathroom areas  frequently subject to damp and moisture, one can only imagine the dangers in the bathroom, particularly when special electrical wiring systems concerns are ignored.

5 Crucial Precautions for Bathroom Electrical Wiring

To avoid the risks from electrical hazards and ensure safety in the bathroom, here are five essential safety precautions when it comes to bathroom electrical wiring:

• Use moisture-splash proof switches.

Moisture-splash proof switches are designed to prevent water from entering the switch and coming into contact with the wires inside.

• Ensure all receptacles are GFCI-protected.

GFCI outlets help reduce the risk of shock hazards in damp areas and have already saved thousands of lives. The National Electric Code currently mandates the installation of GFCI outlets in the bathrooms, crawl spaces, and kitchens among other areas in the house for protection.

• Position the outlets properly.

Outlets in the bathroom should be positioned appropriately and not just anywhere the homeowner wants. Your bathroom outlets must be at least 6 feet away from the edge of the shower or bathtub, and at least a foot away from sinks. The outlet can be placed behind or beside, but never across or over the sink.

• Install ventilation fans.

Exhaust fans are required to effectively avoid the accumulation of moisture and humidity inside the bathroom, which can pose a danger to the electrical wiring inside.

• Distribute different circuits in the bathroom properly.

To ensure that a trouble in one circuit won’t interfere with the operation of another circuit, it is important to distribute the different circuits in the bathroom and keep them isolated. For instance, bathroom lighting fixtures should have a dedicated circuit, and the same goes with the switches and vent fan.

One of the best arguments for regular carpet cleaning is that doing so helps prolong the life of your carpet, thus cutting down on the need to replace old carpeting with new ones. With the right kind of cleaning techniques, stubborn stains, widespread dirt and grease in carpets, and any bacteria buildup in your current carpet can be successfully removed. When done right, carpet cleaning atlanta company will give you back your carpeting almost as good as new. So, if you have been thinking of replacing old, worn out carpeting with new ones, remember that simply keeping up with regular cleaning and maintenance can cut down on the need to replace your carpets altogether.

One of the advantages of this is the money that you can save from not having to purchase and pay for the installation of new carpets. But one added advantage, and one that isn’t quite as obvious to someone whose main interest is clean and aesthetic surroundings is the fact that you will not be adding further waste into the environment.

Each year, an estimated 2.2 billion kilograms of carpet goes to landfills. This is still minuscule compared to the total number of waste that we generate annually, but it is still a significant number.

For environmentally-conscious individuals, it may be helpful to know that regular carpet cleaning not only prolongs the life of your carpets, and thus minimizes the need to replace old carpets with new ones, but also that carpets can be recycled. If you do replace old carpeting with new ones, you have the option of recycling old carpeting instead of just throwing them out until they end up in landfills.

Aside from a move towards green carpet cleaning methods, the carpet industry has also made a move towards recycling old carpets. Fibers can be broken down and recycled into new items or products, and in fact, may even be used to create new carpets, in the form of fiber or backing.

The main difficulty is that these moves towards recycling old carpets depend, to a large extent, on the personal initiative of private individuals who own the carpets in the first place. They have a choice between just throwing away old carpets, and of reaching out to recycling centers that accept carpets for recycling.

In point of fact, you can support this move towards recycling in the carpet industry by patronizing carpet manufacturers that use recycled materials in the production of their carpets. Nowadays, there are carpets with significantly lower VOC emissions and are made from fibers derived from corn products and even recycled plastic bottles and old recycled carpets.

The carpet cleaning industry is built upon the capacity of cleaning hard-to-clean stains, dirt build-up, and the overall cleaning and sanitizing of carpets. In order to do this, the most effective carpet cleaning techniques make use of powerful chemicals that can clean, treat and sanitize yards and yards of carpeting in various homes and buildings. Unfortunately, once the process of carpet cleaning is done, there remains the problem of the disposal of wastewater that is the byproduct of the carpet cleaning process.

The reason why the post-carpet-cleaning process is so important, and why it has spurred a recent move towards “green” carpet cleaning methods, is because of the environmental impact that improper wastewater disposal can have on the environment.

Because of the kinds of cleaning chemicals used, and the resulting concentration of chemicals, dirt, grit, and waste that comes from cleaning dirty carpets, what results is potentially toxic wastewater. These are non-biodegradable concentrations of waste that can accumulate in a city’s sewer system, which may even potentially result in screening problems in wastewater treatment processes. Sometimes, if such wastewater is improperly disposed of, such toxic wastewater never makes it to treatment facilities at all, but instead is absorbed back into bodies of water such as underground waters, rivers or streams, or back into the oceans without any treatment at all.

The repercussions on the environment are obvious. Not only are these wastes non-biodegradable and likely to persist as toxic substances contaminating bodies of water, but being released back into the environment in this way, whether having undergone treatment processes or not, can be dangerous and possibly even lethal to aquatic life, land and water ecosystems, and even to human life, health and welfare. What, after all, ties all living beings together than our need for water?

Most carpet cleaning wastewater contains highly alkaline chemicals, aggressive enzymes and disinfectants, sodium formulations, dyes, bleaches, ethers, and various other chemicals whose main purpose had been to clean carpets.

If the wastewater resulting from cleaning methods that make use of these chemicals, is improperly disposed of and finds its way into the environment, it can potentially endanger whole ecosystems and the life that they contain. The same is also true for humans, human life, and human health and welfare – particularly if such carpet cleaning wastewater disposal has been “disposed of” within the vicinity of a home or any other well-populated areas like parks, beaches, lakes, etc. One particularly dangerous chemical byproduct is butyl cellosolve, which can potentially damage a human or animal’s central nervous system kidneys, blood and liver.