Serving the Buffalo Area since 1995
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Serving the Buffalo Area since 1995
Residential electrical technology continues to march forward, and that means out of date older systems. In many cases, you won’t need to worry about technology in your house that’s a couple of years old. But you may need to worry about technology that’s several decades old!
We’re going to look at four outdated types of wiring and electrical panels we find in many homes. We recommend our customers have these replaced or updated.
Western New York can suffer from long-term power outages and blackouts during the summer. This is a period when the strain on the electrical grid soars as people use air conditioning systems more. Unless a home has an electric water heater, the air conditioner is the appliance that consumes the most electricity.
As electricians in Amherst, NY with a long history in the area, we know plenty about electrical use in summer. We want to help you reduce your summer electrical consumption so you can help the grid stay healthy for everyone and avoid outages and blackouts.
A whole-house generator is a great investment for a home in Western New York. Extended power outages have become a more common problem in the last two decades, and a whole-house generator is your best defense against future ones. The right generator can help your family stay comfortable and safe in a well-lit house until the power comes back on.
Whole-house generators aren’t magical devices, of course, so they can’t run forever. There are two ways of looking at the question in the title of this blog: “How long will a generator run when there’s a power outage?” and “How long will a generator installation last before it needs to be replaced?” We’ll look at both versions of the question so you know what to expect from a whole-house generator—whether you already own one or are considering getting one.
A backup generator has a way of minding its own business on your property. It’s there for when an emergency strikes, but otherwise isn’t operating. This makes it easy to forget about the importance of maintaining the generator. Maintenance is critical for a backup generator because you need to trust that the generator can do its job when the time comes. A generator you can’t trust isn’t much good!
You might think that it’s too late in the year for you to schedule generator maintenance. Here’s the important thing to know: generator maintenance doesn’t have an expiration date, and you can have it done at any time of the year. Fall is a great time to do it, so it’s definitely not too late to call our team for the job.
When a lightbulb in a fixture like a standard lamp burns out, the solution is simple: you put in a new bulb. As long as you make sure you match the wattage of the next bulb with the fixture, everything should be fine. (If bulbs are burning out frequently, however, you may have other problems that will require professional electrical assistance.)
When a recessed lightbulb burns out, you can also put in a new bulb—but you might discover that the light still isn’t working. A recessed fixture can present a different challenge, because it’s set into the ceiling and it isn’t something you can just swap out with a new lamp. You may need to have an expert at indoor lighting in Amherst, NY fix the problem. Below we’ll look at what might be wrong (aside from a standard burnt-out bulb).
Many home service contractors discourage customers from attempting “do-it-yourself” work on their home, and often with good reason. Many of these jobs are time-consuming and easy to get wrong without the proper tools and training.
But the situation is different when it comes to electrical services. We don’t just discourage DIY work—we are adamantly against it because of the immense danger that amateur electrical work can cause. Rudimentary mistakes can mean a house is no longer up-to-code and increase the chance of electrical fires. Only licensed electricians can provide electrical repair in Amherst, NY and throughout Western New York, and you wouldn’t want anybody else to provide service for your home.
An important job we often focus on here at Scherer Electric is making upgrades to electrical panels for homes. In our long history as a top Amherst, NY electrician, and as Western New York’s Favorite Electrician, we’ve seen plenty of outdated panels in homes that needed to be replaced many years ago. There are also specific panel types that are hazardous, such as Federal Pacific panels that we advise all homeowners have replaced as soon as they can.
If you’re asking this question, it’s because you either have a suspicion that your current electrical panel is out of date, or you know it’s out of date because it’s failed on you. Perhaps you have an old fuse box, and now realize that this antiquated technology isn’t viable anymore as you keep putting larger and larger fuses on it. Maybe you’ve found out about the danger of the Federal Electric panel installed in your house and want this fire hazard eliminated.
Great—replacing your electrical panel is almost certainly beneficial, and could even prevent a house fire. But if you came here looking for advice on how to install the panel yourself … well, we hope we stopped you before you wandered over to any hazardous recommendations on how you can do it yourself. Because even if you could, you shouldn’t.
“Do you hear a buzzing sound? I could swear I hear a buzzing sound. Anyone else hear that?”
Have you said something like this before in your home? It may have been nothing—an “audio illusion,” it happens. It may have been minor trouble. Or it could have indicated a serious electrical concern. We’re going to look at household electrical noises and when you should call an Amherst, NY electrician to find out if there’s a repair problem that needs to be taken care of.
You know electricity can be dangerous since you’ve almost certainly sustained at least a small electric shock before (aside from static electricity). But since you deal with electricity every day in your home, your work, most leisure activities, almost everywhere, you don’t think often about electrical dangers.
For your safety, you need to know about the electrical dangers that can occur in your home and what to do to prevent harm to your family and property. Please don’t attempt to handle any of these problems on your own: call our electricians in Amherst, NY so any electrical issues are fixed and fixed safely.
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