Identifying Common Electrical Faults & How to Fix Them

When it comes to your home electrical system, ensuring that yours is working safely and functionally is a must for the safety of your property and the people in it. Like all household systems, electrical systems can sometimes fault.

While this does not always require professional repairs, it’s important to stay informed regarding faults and damage to electronics to know when it’s time to call a professional for help. Here, the team at John Cook Electrical Dublin will go through some of Ireland’s most common electrical faults and explain how to fix them when applicable.

Recurring Electrical Surges

Electrical surges can be common in households across Ireland, but can be extremely dangerous if not monitored closely. Electrical surges are brief overvoltage strikes or currents and can occur due to lightning strikes, large appliances being switched on or off, and electrical grid supply changing, among other things. Unsurprisingly, these spikes in current can damage appliances, especially cheap and badly manufactured appliances. If appliances in your home smell like they’re burning, have shut off unexpectedly, or have broken/flashing lights, it could be an indication of an electrical surge in your home. To avoid electrical surges, we recommend unplugging electronics during a storm and using a surge protector where possible. Ensuring that you don’t have any cheap and badly-made electronics plugged in can also help prevent electrical surges.
If this is a recurring problem, it’s important to hire the help of a professional to ensure the safety of your wiring and potentially rewire your house to avoid disastrous house fires or electrical blow-outs in the long run.

Dips in Power

Similar to electrical surges, dips in electrical power are characterised by electronics shutting off or malfunctioning due to power being shut off briefly. Interestingly, the most common cause for dips or sags in electrical power is due to faulty or poorly made electronic devices being plugged in and drawing too much power. When low-quality electronic devices are plugged in, they can often draw too much power, causing a dip in power for all other electronics in the home. If this is the case in your property, it’s important to stop using the electronic device in question as this poses a risk to your overall electrical supply system. Like electrical surges, if you are experiencing frequent power dips it’s important to contact a local electrician to ensure that there is no larger problem with the wiring of the fuse board in your home.

High Electricity Bills

Many people don’t know this, but high electricity bills can often be attributed to faults or malfunctions in the internal wiring of your electrical system. If you’ve noticed your electricity bills become unexpectedly high without any changes in your normal electricity use, it could be an indication that something is wrong with the electrical system in your home. Leaks in electrical hot water systems, damaged wiring, and old circuits are just a few of the many electrical faults that can cause electricity bills to skyrocket. If you’ve contacted your electricity company about increasing bills and haven’t found a resolution, hiring a qualified electrician to help investigate the issue can be a good idea to help you save time, money, and stress in the long run.

Should I Try to Fix Electrics Myself?

While many DIY enthusiasts take pride in being able to fix almost anything in the home, tampering with your property’s electrical system can be a dangerous and foolish thing to do. Unlike other systems in the home, your electrical system is one that can be extremely dangerous to mess with, especially if you’re untrained. If you’re experiencing electrical faults, smell burning, or simply want to know how your electrical system is functioning, it’s always a good idea to hire the help of a professional. As well as saving you time and hassle, hiring the help of a Dublin electrician to sort electrical repairs could save you from the potential loss of your home and your life in the future. For fault finding, please contact our elections today.