Common Electrical Issues You Might Have In Your Kansas City Home

August 23, 2023

Knowing how to repair your home is a great skill to have. With all of the helpful how-to videos and blogs, it can be easy to tackle common household issues yourself. There are some occasions, however, that you may want to call in a professional. When it comes to electrical issues, you’ll need to be very careful when repairing yourself. Here are some common household issues that can happen with your electrical.

Lights Frequently Burning Out?

There are a few things that could be causing this common issue. It could be that your bulb’s wattage is too high, try to change out the bulb for one with less wattage. Also recessed lights in your ceiling could be getting too warm. A lot of these types of lights have safety switches that shut them off. Checking the insulation to make sure it is not too close to the bulb could remedy this. If these don’t fix your issues, you should think about calling an electrician, because this could be a wiring issue.

Lights flickering or dimming?

Flickering or dimming lights are usually a sign of a bad connection either at the circuit or at the light socket itself. This doesn’t seem like a huge issue, but because the connection isn’t fully there, it could cause arcing between the connections. This can start a fire. It is best to get this checked out by a professional as soon as possible.

High electric bill?

Let’s face it, no one wants a high electric bill but looking out for any issues before they happen will definitely save you from that unruly bill. Believe it or not it you could have a leak on a hot water line coming from your water heater. Even the smallest drip can end up costing you over time. Try to keep appliances that you are not using unplugged. Even when they are off they are still attached to the circuit and are drawing power. Also if you have any 60watt bulbs you can replace them with compact florescent bulbs, this alone could save you over $100 over the course of a year.

Breaker keeps tripping?

The good thing about this issue is that if your breaker keeps tripping, it’s doing its job and keeping you safe. You can try not using so many electrical items at once, as in, not having your washing machine/ dryer running, having lights on, using a microwave or electric oven. You could also have an issue somewhere in the circuit and you should call an electrician to figure out what is going on.

Dead outlet in a room?

If this has happened to you there are a couple things you could look for. Your breaker might have just tripped for that one room; just check your breaker box. Also your outlet from being used frequently could have just had a connection loosened from being used all the time. If you’re having these issues on your Kansas City garage door lighting or in your bathroom, kitchen; it might just be that it is a Ground-Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) that has tripped. Try hitting the reset button on your outlet, if that doesn’t work it means there is an issue in the circuit and the GFCI is doing its job so you don’t get a shock when using the outlet.

Hamilton offers electrical services to all of the Kansas City Metro. If you are needing a professional to assist you with your electrical issues, please give us a call today.