Red Deer Electrician: Common Electrical Problems Red Deer Homeowners Should Never Ignore

Red Deer Electrician: Common Electrical Problems Red Deer Homeowners Should Never Ignore

Hey everybody, welcome back to the channel. It’s me Trevor again here with Ryan. He’s the owner of LumenTek Electrical out of Red Deer, Alberta.

Basically anywhere in Central Alberta, if you need an electrician, you can call Ryan from LumenTek Electrical.

Today, if you’re a homeowner in Alberta, especially in the Red Deer area, you’ve likely experienced some form of electrical issue, whether it’s flickering lights, tripping breakers, or outlets that just don’t work right.

To help us understand what’s going on behind the walls, we’ve got Ryan here from LumenTek Electrical with years of hands-on experience serving homes throughout Central Alberta.

Ryan’s here to answer some of the top questions about common electrical problems and what you can do about them.

All right, let’s roll. Let’s get into it.

Hey Ryan, what typically causes lights to flicker in homes? Is it because the bulbs are bad or is it something else?

It could be either. A bad bulb, especially LEDs, will flicker. Or it could be a loose connection or something else similar to that.

The easiest way to check if you don’t want to call an electrician right away is to take the bulb out, move it to another fixture that’s not flickering, take that bulb and put it in the one that was flickering.

If the flickering moves to the light that you moved the bulb to, then it’s a bad light bulb. If it stays in the same light, then there’s probably something going on with the light.

It could be anything from the little pin at the back of the socket not touching the light bulb tight enough, or it could be a connection in the wall or on the breaker.

It really depends on that situation.

So it could be the switch, it could be anything in that system between the panel and the light bulb.

So basically if it’s that, then you got to call someone to come and troubleshoot that.

Exactly.

But the easiest way, swap the light bulb. If the problem follows the light bulb, it’s a bad light bulb. If the problem follows the fixture, then something else is going on.

Why Circuit Breakers Keep Tripping

Question number two is, why do circuit breakers keep tripping? And when is it more than just an overloaded circuit?

They could trip for any number of reasons.

Most of the time, the calls we get are arc fault breakers tripping. Any kind of sustained spark will trip an arc fault.

Turning a light switch on and off will always make a tiny spark. That shouldn’t be enough to trip the arc fault breaker. They’re more going to trip if it’s a continued spark for more than half a second.

What would cause that?

Loose connections is the biggest thing.

Issues with what you’ve plugged in. Any kind of electric motors. The older arc faults would trip almost every time with any kind of plug-in vacuum or anything like that.

Since then, the last couple years, they’ve gotten a lot better. Those new arc faults don’t really trip unless there’s actually an issue.

That could be caused by loose connections, something sparking inside the wall, something not good.

So, something not good. Okay. So, you definitely want to get that checked out.

Perfect.

Now, if an outlet feels warm or if it buzzes, what electrical hazards should homeowners be aware of?

Both of those, the most likely cause is a loose connection.

That can either be someone sticking the wires in the quick connects instead of wrapping them around the screw and tightening them, or just a poor connection from the beginning that has progressively gotten worse.

Every time you use it and it’s got a bad connection, it heats up. When metal heats up, it expands, making the connection looser every time it heats up and cools down.

Now, would that be caused in the event of someone having aluminum wiring?

It could.

Aluminum reacts worse to heat than copper does. Especially when it gets older and gets corroded, it gets even worse.

That’s where a lot of the aluminum issues came from. Loose connections and not using proper paste on there to prevent corrosion.

Which led to house fires, folks. Not a good thing.

Electrical Hazards Hidden Behind Your Walls

What signs indicate it’s time to upgrade an old electrical panel or knob and tube wiring?

Having knob and tube wiring is a pretty good indication you should probably go buy a lottery ticket and do some upgrades.

Your house hasn’t burnt down by then, it’s definitely time to start thinking about it because knob and tube wiring has no grounding.

I don’t think there’s any insurance companies that will insure anybody now with knob and tube.

I’ve only ever seen it in older homes, and it was rough.

I did a lot of houses with knob and tube wiring because they were heritage homes, so they wanted to maintain that as much as possible.

But there’s no grounding in knob and tube wiring, folks.

Barely any insulation.

So yeah, if you have knob and tube wiring, get Ryan to come out and give you a complete overhaul.

You’re going to have to open up some walls. You’re going to have to rewire some stuff. It’s an afternoon project, that’s for sure.

Okay. Let’s look at GFCI outlets.

Why do GFCI outlets trip frequently in kitchens or bathrooms, and what should homeowners do about that?

They can trip for a number of reasons.

The most common is any kind of water near whatever you’ve got plugged in.

What it does is it measures power in and power out, and if there’s any difference between the two, it assumes that’s gone to ground and there’s a problem.

So it will shut off before you can get shocked.

They do get worn out sometimes if they’ve tripped a bunch. Then they’ll start tripping more and more easily.

We find that a lot with outdoor plugs because people plug a lot of stuff in like saws, compressors, whatever when they’re working, and it just wears the plugs out.

Every once in a while they just need to get replaced.

So just regular wear and tear and get them replaced.

Like anything. They can just wear out.

It’s metal. It’s mechanical. It’s outside.

How can loose or faulty wire connections create safety risks? And is thermal imaging used here?

Thermal imaging will help you find a problem before it becomes a big problem.

We actually did a panel swap for a commercial building that had a loose connection behind one of the wires.

You wouldn’t have seen it because the wire was connected properly. It was the connection from the wire lug to the bus bar that had loosened off.

Someone used an impact, and the bolt was almost snapped. So it was loose and could wiggle around and move.

We noticed they lost a phase on their panel.

We checked it and realized they had burnt the whole bus bar.

As soon as we touched one phase with an Allen key, the whole wire just popped right off with the lug still attached.

That was the problem they had.

But had they had someone come in and check that, that would have been a couple hundred dollars versus a few thousand for one panel upgrade.

Big deal.

When to Call a Red Deer Electrician

Now, when should homeowners stop do-it-yourself projects and call a licensed electrician?

It really depends on the homeowner.

I’ve met a few homeowners that shouldn’t be allowed to change cover plates, but there’s some where I’ve seen their work and there’s nothing wrong with it.

They’ve done pot lights or whatever, and everything checks out and looks fine.

It really depends on their ability and if they know anything about electricity.

Generally, maintenance stuff can be handled by most homeowners.

So only if there’s something beyond your scope.

Yeah. If you’re not comfortable doing it, then don’t do it. Call an electrician.

What preventive measures can help homeowners avoid major electrical problems down the line?

You’re better off calling someone sooner than later.

If you notice a couple lights flickering here and there, you’re better off calling right away than waiting until you start losing more and more lights or having plugs and appliances stop working.

Usually when more and more things go, the problem gets bigger and bigger.

What could have been a simple connection being redone could turn into a panel replacement.

Awesome.

Well, that sounds good. Thanks so much for sharing your insights and expertise in the electrical field.

If you guys are looking for an electrician and have any of these problems, reach out to LumenTek Electrical, and Ryan will come out and give you a quote on getting that work fixed and corrected so you can get back to living again.

Thanks so much. See you next time.