Scherer Electric Blog: Posts Tagged ‘Electrical Repairs’

5 Signs of Electrical Wiring Problems You Shouldn’t Ignore

Monday, September 11th, 2023
outlet-with-plug-on-fire

Small electrical problems may seem like nuisances, but they often point toward much larger issues with a home’s wiring. Damaged or aging wires can lead to major emergencies like fires if they aren’t addressed. If you have wiring trouble in your house, it’s critical to have the problem addressed right away—and not as a DIY project! You’ll need professional electricians to come to your house to examine the wiring, identify the problem, and have it safely repaired.

If you notice any of the warning signs of wire trouble below, call our licensed electricians for electrical repair in Orchard Park, NY that will ensure your house stays safe and stays powered.

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Common Spa and Hot Tub Wiring Problems

Monday, April 24th, 2023
Water_line

Although you can get some use out of your spa during many times of the year, the summer is when you’ll enjoy relaxing in this luxurious oasis the most. 

However, it’s important to remember that spas, hot tubs, and jacuzzis are electrical devices. Like any electrical device, they may encounter wiring and other electrical problems and fail. If you need repairs for your spa, please don’t try to do it yourself or let another amateur take on the job. Any major electrical work requires a professional electrician, and in the case of a spa, a mistake can create a serious risk of electric shock. (Think of a toaster getting knocked into a bathtub and you’ll see why you don’t want any errors.)

Fortunately, when you need spa repair in Buffalo, NY, you don’t have to look far. Scherer Electric is not only Western New York’s favorite electrician, we also handle hot tub, spa, and jacuzzi wiring. Below we’re going to look at several common spa electrical issues that you may need our help for. 

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Troubleshooting Common Indoor Lighting Troubles

Monday, April 10th, 2023
lightbulb-on-its-side

Before we go farther with this post, we want to point out that troubleshooting is much different from repair.

Electrical work is something you need to leave to professionals, so if you have major issues with your indoor lighting you can resolve with basic steps, you want to have actual licensed electricians to do the work.

Amateur tampering with indoor lighting, particularly with the wiring, can create major safety hazards leading to electrical fires and parts of a house catching on fire

Now that we’ve got that important warning out of the way, let’s check out your home’s lighting issues and see what you can do about them.

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Why You Should ONLY Hire Professional Electricians

Monday, February 27th, 2023
electrical-parts

The title of this post is a bit redundant: it should be “Why You Should ONLY Hire Electricians.” The reason is that any one who’s an amateur electrician is not an electrician!

You can’t have an amateur lawyer or an amateur doctor—when you say “lawyer” or “doctor,” you mean someone who has a law degree or a medical degree and a license to practice. The same criteria applies to electricians. 

Unfortunately, homeowners often make the mistake of thinking an amateur who claims to be an electrician is someone they can trust with important work.

Hiring an amateur “electrician” to fix wiring for your house makes as much sense as hiring a “medical enthusiast” (or whatever title a bogus doctor uses) to handle your surgery. 

We hope this explanation has convinced you to only hire a (professional) electrician in Cheektowaga, NY. If you want to learn more about why to avoid amateurs (and that includes you) for electrical work, follow us below.

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The Causes of Power Outages in Your Home

Monday, April 11th, 2022

Even with the best electrical grid available to provide power, power outages can still occur in homes. You’ve almost certainly experienced loss of electricity to at least one house you’ve lived in—maybe for a few hours, maybe for days. 

Although you can take steps to avoid losing power in your house because of malfunctions with your own electrical system, there are many external causes you cannot avoid. In these cases, your best tool is preparation, such as having a whole-house generator installed as a backup and having surge protection in place to prevent damage to appliances due to a catastrophic event (weather, downed power lines) creating an outage.

In this post, we’re going to explain in more depth the types of power outages and their sources. 

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The Importance of Properly Grounding Your Home

Monday, January 3rd, 2022
GFCI outlet

When we as electricians say a home is grounded, we mean that there’s a connection between the electrical components of the structure and the ground. Electricity naturally seeks the shortest path to the earth that it can, and when a house is grounded it provides electricity with the best path down into the ground and not into parts of the house where it can cause damage.

If you have three-prong outlets in your house, it means the house is grounded. The third circular hole in the outlet is to ground the outlet. 

Unfortunately, not all homes in this area are grounded. If you live in a house that doesn’t have three-prong outlets, we recommend calling our electricians for home grounding services in Buffalo, NY. And no, using three-prong adapters isn’t “grounding” the house. But even grounded homes can run into problems if they are improperly grounded. 

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Ways to Tell You Need Work on Your Business’ Wiring

Monday, December 20th, 2021
conference-table-under-lights

We don’t live in the coal or steam age—all businesses depend on electricity to run. Unfortunately, many businesses aren’t aware that they may have deficient or deteriorating wiring for their facilities until something serious occurs, such as a partial or total power outage or even an electrical fire. 

We know that you want your commercial electrical wiring to be up to code and reliable. Sometimes, this will require calling for service for commercial electrical wiring in Buffalo, NY from our expert electricians. We have more than 25 years of history helping handle the electrical needs of companies in Western New York, and we’re here to deliver the help your company needs. But first, you’ll have to know there’s a problem. In this post, we’ll look at how you can tell you may need professional wiring service for your business. Many of these are situations are emergencies or semi-emergencies, so don’t wait to make the call. We have 24/7 service available. 

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Why You May Have Failed Light Fixtures

Monday, November 8th, 2021
lightbulb-on-its-side

We’ve all experienced this annoyance before: we flip on a light switch as we step into the house, or into a dark room, and nothing happens. Sometimes, the light comes on for a second, then goes dark with a buzz sound—usually an indicator the bulb burned out.

But bulb burnout isn’t the only reason for a light failing to come on. When lights fail in your house, you can do some standard investigation to see what’s wrong. Check that the fixture is plugged in, put in a new bulb, see if a circuit breaker tripped. These are basic troubleshooting steps that don’t require calling an electrician.

But there may be a deeper electrical issue behind the failed light—you may have a failed light fixture, bad wiring, a broken switch. Don’t try to take out tools and see if you can make repairs for these problems! Yes, you can shut off the power to the fixture at the breaker to prevent a high voltage shock, but your amateur tampering with a fixture or a switch could create a fire hazard. Please leave any work on your indoor lighting in Orchard Park, NY to our licensed professionals.

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Electrical Safety Tips for the Halloween Season

Monday, October 11th, 2021
fall-decor

Halloween is more than a single night for trick-or-treating. It consumes the entire month of October, and no other holiday aside from Christmas is more focused on decorating with lights—and often candles. If you like to celebrate the October Country with lighting inside and outside your home, we want to ensure you enjoy the safest Halloween possible. It may be a spooky time of the year, but it should always be fun spooky, not actually dangerous!

Below we’ve put together several electrical safety tips from our licensed electricians. 

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Why Your Outlets Are Sparking (And Why You Need Them Repaired)

Monday, August 16th, 2021
electrical-outlet-wall

You plug an appliance into a wall socket. An everyday occurrence, nothing important. But as the plug goes into the socket, a spark flashes. When you take the plug out later, you also see sparking. 

Occasional sparking outlets are normal and not a reason to panic. What you’re seeing is a fast draw on electrical power, and the effect isn’t much larger than a static electricity spark. 

When sparks at outlets become regular events, ones you can anticipate each time you plug in a device, you may have a serious electrical problem. Don’t attempt to tamper with the outlets yourself. Stop using the sparking outlets and call our licensed pros for electric repair in Buffalo, NY. We can determine which of these common causes is causing the sparking and then have it safely fixed.

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