How to Prepare Your Home Electrical for Winter with AFCI Breakers
As the cold wind moves in and the leaves turn, it's time to pack away the patio lights and start thinking about seasonal lights and lawn ornaments. With shorter days and nights, our desire for indoor and outdoor lighting increases our electricity use. You can do several things to help prepare your home and electrical system for the busy season.
Assessing Your Seasonal Lights
Before it gets cold, you may want to pick a weekend to sort through and assess your holiday lights. By October, most stores are beginning to display their holiday inventory, which means if you need to replace any lightbulbs, you'll have the first pick of the supplies. This is also your opportunity to recycle any damaged lighting or donate items you don't want anymore.
Common Causes of Winter Electrical Problems
The winter season brings seasonal electrical problems no matter how prepared you are. Not only are Canadian homes consuming more electricity overall, but some activities can increase electrical hazards.
Unwanted Animal Activity
We want to be cozy indoors where it's light and warm on freezing cold days. Animals want the same thing. Sometimes small animals find their way into our homes without our knowledge. Finding mice inside your home can be troubling for many reasons. One of those reasons is the risk of the mice chewing away at your electrical cords inside the wall where you can't see them.
Power Surges
Winter storms can wreak havoc on electrical systems just as much as summer storms can. High wind speeds and heavy snowfalls can damage electrical wires in your neighbourhood. When your power goes out, then gets reconnected, there is always a risk of a power surge. You can avoid damage to your devices and appliances by installing whole-house power surge protection.
Installing Home Decor
Every holiday has its own set of home decor, which often calls for hanging new things on walls. If you're not using a stud and electrical wire detector, you may risk drilling into a wire. Even slight damage to wiring can be hazardous. Over time, minor damage can lead to major damage unless you have arc fault breaker wiring in your home to detect the problem early.
What Is Arc Fault Breaker Wiring?
Arc Fault Circuit Interrupters, or AFCI, are breakers designed to detect slow electrical leaks in your circuits, called arc faults. These slow electrical leaks occur when there is minor damage to wiring or loose connections that aren't immediately visible. These problem locations heat up at the source and can create sparks or the melting of nearby materials that can lead to fires.
AFCI vs. GFCI
AFCI breakers detect the small changes in electrical levels created by arc faults. GFCI breakers, or Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters, are not sensitive enough to pick up on the electrical charge of an arc fault.
Research into the causes of home electrical fires determined that arc faults were hazardous and required special detection systems. In recent decades, Canadian national electrical codes have required AFCI breakers to be installed in new residential homes.
How Do AFCIs Work?
When electrical leaks are detected, it trips an AFCI breaker, closing the entire circuit. In contrast, the standard circuit breakers only trip when large amounts of energy are detected. These traditional circuit breakers are unable to detect subtle wiring problems.
Installing AFCI Circuit Breakers
Replacing your standard circuit breakers for AFCI circuit breakers is rather straightforward. They typically fit the same as your standard breakers, except they have a neutral wire connecting directly to your electrical panel's neutral bus. While there is a moderate cost associated with updater your breakers, it is by far the most affordable fire insurance measure for your home.
Where to Install AFCI Breakers
The best place to begin upgrading your AFCI breakers is for your bedroom, living room, and kitchen circuits, as these are the places that are at the highest risk for electrical fires. For older homes, the best solution may be to upgrade your entire electrical panel.
Arc Fault Breaker Wiring Installation in St. Albert
At MMi Electrical, our Master Electricians are qualified and experienced in installing AFCI circuits in new and older homes. Call us to learn more about upgrading your home to an AFCI circuit system so you can sleep soundly, knowing your home is protected throughout the holidays.