Electrical Systems
Electrical systems are complex tangles of boxes, connectors, breakers, switches, and wiring. As such, we do NOT recommend that a novice at undertake these projects. Even if you are doing all the other work to demolish and renovate a kitchen, bath or family room, you should hire an electrician to do this piece of the work. You will need permits and inspections and, even if you DON’T need them, a licensed electrician will make sure you don’t make a critical mistake and burn down your house or negate your homeowners’ policy. The information we have provided about electricity and electrical work in this book is limited to minor issues. If you do some troubleshooting and find a problem, call an electrician to fix the problem! You can buy a voltage tester to determine whether a circuit is live or whether it is turned off. These testers will light up if the circuit is live. Whenever you are looking at an outlet or troubleshooting a problem, turn off the circuit before you do any work. If you want to check the screw terminals to be sure your connections are not loose, you simply have to remove the cover plate on the plug you are working on. Before you take off the place, use your voltage tester to test between the screws on each side of the outlet and to test the green ‘ground’ screw. Read the instructions on your voltage tester to understand the readings you will see and what the different combinations of colors and lights means on your particular model and brand of voltage tester. All new homes, and many older homes have circuit breakers. Each ‘breaker’ is connected to a group of lights, outlet and areas in your home. Make sure your breaker box is labeled

Don't Risk Your Children.
It is quite horrifying to think that in the USA there is one needless death every three hours. Do you have a smoke alarm installed in your home? Many people died in apartments as well as homes, so do not think of a smoke alarm as simply protecting the equity that you have in your property; a smoke alarm can be and is a life-saver. <a href="http://www.articleset.com/Home-Improvement_articles_en_Don-t-Risk-Your-Children.htm">Read more</a>


so that if you have an emergency you can get to the box, identify the breaker you need to turn off and turn off the power quickly and easily. If you are not sure which breakers are connected to which areas or outlets, you can test them by turning breakers off and on and having someone walk through the house to tell you where the electricity has been turned off and where it is still functioning. The circuit breakers in your home are designed to protect the wiring by ‘tripping’ if there is a problem. That means, that if the breaker senses an overload or other issue, it may shut the power down in that area of the house and ‘trip’ the circuit to keep the power off until you fix the problem. Overloading a circuit with too many appliances may cause a circuit breaker to ‘trip’. A tripped breaker switch appears to between the ON and OFF positions or sometimes (on some of the older boxes), it will appear to be ‘OFF’. To reset your breaker after you have resolved the overload or other problem, simply turn it the off position, and then turn it on again. If your service panel does not have breakers, it is probably an older box and it probably has ‘fuses’. Fuses perform in the same way a breaker performs, except a fuse will ‘blow’ if there is a problem or an overload. You will have to buy extra fuses to keep on hand so you can replace ‘blown’ fuses as necessary. There are two types of fuses (screw and cartridge). Cartridges snap into place. Screw fuses screw in and out of the box much like you might install a light bulb. Look at the fuses in your box before you buy an extra supply and be sure you purchase the same ‘amperage-rated’ fuses as the ones you have in the box.


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