It May Be Time to See The Light, and a Pittsburgh Electrician!
Just think for a minute. How many light switches are in your Pittsburgh home? And, how often do you use them? A common household light switch while seemingly unassuming, can actually lead to extreme disaster if ordinary faulty warning signs are not taken very seriously, addressed and properly resolved – if necessary, by an Electrician.
Say for example, you walk in the front door, flip on the hallway switch and you notice that it feels slightly warm to the touch, perhaps even hot. Warning! Or, you’re running into the kitchen and need light to cook when you suddenly hear sizzling or crackling sounds when turning the switch on. Warning! Light that actually flickers when you operate a light switch is also a problem. And, most certainly, loose light switches. Electrical occurrences such as these are more than often the beginning warning signs of something worse to come and very much indeed a cause for alarm.
These effects, caused by loose electrical connections or rather loose contacts, are all signs that your light switches may be faulty or about to go, if not already going, bad. When working properly, electrical contacts should be in either one of two positions. Either “closed,” meaning the contacts are touching and your electricity is flowing between them, so your light switch is “on,” or “open,” meaning the contacts are separated and the flow or electricity is broken, or your light switch is “off.”
According to Wikipedia, “To make a light switch safe, durable, and reliable, it must be designed so that the contacts are held firmly together under positive force when the switch is closed. It should be designed so that regardless of how the person operating the switch manipulates it, the contacts always close or open quickly.” Loose contacts, bad contacts, or contacts that are not working up-to-par, can cause the above mentioned risky symptoms and then some. And, if left unattended, the outcomes of these dangerous faulty electrical connections can include short-circuiting your breaker, blowing out your fuse box – to – burns, electrical fires and even electrocution.
As a rule of thumb, any loose or broken light switch or switch plate needs replaced. Burns can surprisingly occur quite easily as a result of faulty, loose light switches. Electricity is actually “heat” energy, and when coming in contact with it from its current that’s connected to the switch, you can get burned, just like you would from a flame. Even a screw in a switch plate, if hot enough, can cause a burn when touched.
Of course, a more compelling way to get burned is through fires that are started by faulty, loose light switches. So, be sure to have a fire extinguisher rated for electrical fires on hand for any such unwanted occasion. When a light switch is loose, faulty contacts in the wiring may let heat escape. If enough heat escapes, components within the switch or near the switch port can actually ignite, i.e., catch fire! If your light switch or switch plate is warm – Warning! – this is a sign that your switch needs attention immediately.
Loose light switches also just move around too easily. The electrical wiring linked to the switch will start to wear out, due to all this extra movement. If the wiring becomes worn or damaged, the integrity of the flowing electricity traveling from the wires to the switch can become compromised. So, anything could happen. This kind of set-up is a set-up for an electrical disaster – perhaps shock or worse yet, electrocution.
Gillece Service Electricians are skilled, friendly, timely and thorough. Be sure to put your home in their trusted hands.
