This article was posted 05/09/2013 and is most likely outdated.

Mike Holt - Electrical Safety Month May 2013
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Electrical Safety Month - May 2013

May 2013 – Electrical Safety Month

Electrical Home Safety flyerMay is Electrical Safety Month, and a good time to review electrical safety practices.
Is Your Home Safe?

What many people don’t realize is that electrical fires claim the lives of over 300 people every year in America and injure countless others. It is important to be educated and to seek help from a licensed and qualified electrician. Don’t take chances by guessing or trying to do electrical work yourself. In addition to fire, hundreds of people die by electrical shock each year in their homes. It is important to stay safe and to keep your electrical system working properly and correctly.

We’ve created a 2-page PDF that provides useful information on electrical home safety. Feel free to send it to your customers.
Click here to download the flyer.

Related Links & Stories
Know the Dangers in your Older Home - ESFi
Electrical Home Fire Safety - FEMA
Electrical Safety Foundation International – Safety Campaign
5 Killed in Idaho house fire after electrical short

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Comments
  • I think the flyer is a great idea. Here are a few suggestions:

    1st paragraph is dangerous when it says hire a licensed and qualified electrician - a homeowner has no way to know if a licensed electrician is qualified. If an electrician holds a license, he must be qualified. A better suggestion is to determine if the electrician does hold a license. Perhaps wording such as - before hiring an electrician, call your local certification board to verify they are properly licensed ( and get a permit if required).

    para titled Appliances and Equipment deals with chords and surge protectors. Change the title or move the content elswhere.

    I think an included topic should be called devices: discuss therein broken switches or terminals, damaged or arced receptacles, pull chord switches that don't work, smoke detectors, etc

    Hot terminals - how is a homeowner supposed to know if terminals are thermally hot (unless they stick their finger on it. Delete - dangerous comment.

    Receptacles para 1 - I wasn't aware that GFCI receptacles were needed if they were not required under the code the house was wired under.

    Perhaps include a topic like safety assessment or system upgrade, and discuss a few things there - adding new circuits, changing/upgrading devices to tamper proof or to GFCI or AFI (or include breaker upgrade), examining exterior wiring (I recently found my sunlight resistant service entrance cable sheathing had been damaged by the sun over the 25 years it was in place) etc.

    Or suggest having a licensed electrician conduct the survey.

    How about suggesting taking down Christmas or Holiday lights after the holiday has passed ( I forget the NEC code section)

    Or how about including a general recommendation for lay people not to do their own electrical work unless they really know what they are doing.

    I could make more suggestions, but do consider making the flyer more focused on what a lay person might do to enhance safety. That's a good picture of the damaged extension chord. How about some of a receptacle that has sustained arc damage, or broken devices etc.

    ib littlejohn  May 10 2013, 12:23 am EDT
  • Reply from: Mike Holt   May 10 2013, 3:02 pm EDT
    Thank you for the excellent suggestions.

    Reply from: Jimmy   June 4 2013, 8:25 pm EDT
    Hi, to my knowledge not only licensed electrician is qualified but also People that work on the electrical trade for a long time are qualified the ony thing is they do not poses the License....

    Reply from: Mike Holt   June 4 2013, 8:51 pm EDT
    If one doesn't have a license, they are not qualified. If they don't have experience they are not qualified. If they don't get CEU annually for at least 8 hours per year they are not qualified.


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