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Caring for your home's electrical systems is a large task with a lot of responsibility. There's a lot that can go wrong if you're not properly trained to handle large amounts of electricity. This blog post is meant to be a helpful and informational guide, but for any service or maintenance, we always recommend contacting a local professional for assistance.
Add Lighting to Your Outdoor Space
The addition of lighting to your home's outdoor spaces, both the front and backyards, will be beneficial in a number of ways. First and foremost, lighting will eliminate a lot of safety hazards. Illuminated pathways will keep people on safe ground, and security lighting will alert you to any unwanted or unexpected guests. But we can't forget about what lighting will do for the aesthetics of your home. We believe that no space is complete without a well-designed lighting system! Whether you want to use your lighting to highlight a particular feature of the yard or to illuminate a kitchen or living space, you can't go wrong!
Types of Lighting
There are a few types of lighting to choose from when it comes to designing your outdoor space.
- Overall lighting: Overall light will provide lighting for a whole space - perfect for your kitchen or living area!
- Task lighting: Task lighting is used with intent - perfect for lighting a path!
- Accent lighting: Accent lighting highlights a particular feature - perfect for the water feature you want to draw attention to!
How to Care For Your Outdoor Electrical System
The main theme when handling any electric system, but especially outdoor electric systems, is to treat them with the utmost care. Electric systems can be finicky, and if something goes wrong, they can cause significant physical harm, damage to appliances, and can even start a fire.
Electric Panels
The electric panel in your home is the brain of the electrical operation. The way this device works is that electricity will flow into it from the electrical meter, and from there, the panel will distribute electricity through the breakers and into different segments of your house. If too much electricity begins to flow through a breaker, it will trip or turn off. This is to prevent a power surge that could destroy any appliances or plugged-in electronics or even cause a fire.
If something goes wrong with your panel, then it will affect the rest of the electrical systems throughout your home, which is why it's so important to keep it well maintained and to schedule inspections throughout the year to make sure it is operating as it should.
Outdoor Lighting
We spoke previously about the importance and benefits of adding outdoor lighting to your home, so now we'll discuss the importance of caring for that lighting properly.
Special care should be given to all of your electric systems, but especially to your outdoor ones that typically deal with higher voltage and are exposed to more water. All outdoor outlets, light fixtures, and bulbs should be weatherproof and protected by GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) breakers. GFCI outlets or breakers are imperative in areas that are exposed to more moisture, like bathrooms, kitchen, laundry rooms, and anywhere outside. GFCI outlets work by monitoring electrical currents and cutting power or 'tripping' the breaker when the outlets detect an imbalanced current flow down an electrical path.
As we've mentioned in the past, maintaining your home's electrical systems is no light task. In order to prevent serious injury or structural damage to your home or business, contact a professional for all electrical service needs. At Knee's Electrical Service, we'd be happy to help you navigate your home's electrical system. Call us today at (765) 201-7220 or visit our website for more information!