As a homeowner, you have to learn a whole lot of things to take care of the property. You might not be an electrician, but you need to know a little bit about electricity to keep things safe. More importantly, you need to know when it’s time to get help.
In that vein, it’s important to understand signs of wear and tear in your electrical boxes. Left ignored, they can create hazards and problems. If you stay ahead of wear and tear, your house stays safe and everything works as intended.
What Are Electrical Boxes?
Before you can start looking for signs of trouble with your electrical boxes, it might help to know a little more about them. Many people think that the electrical box is the panel with all of the breakers in a house. That does constitute an electrical box, but it’s hardly the only one.
Every outlet, light switch, and light fixture (including ceiling fans) in a home has an electrical box, usually behind a wall or ceiling. These boxes house the joints where electrical devices are wired to the power running through your home.
The boxes are important because they protect the most vulnerable and dangerous parts of the wiring in a house.
Why Does Wear and Tear Matter?
Wear and tear in an electrical box really comes in two forms. The box itself can sustain damage. Electrical surges, pests, and plain old age can wear down the boxes. If and when that happens, they don’t offer as much protection to the wired joints, and that’s not ideal.
More often than that, the components inside the box wear out. That’s because they process a lot of electricity, and eventually, electricity can damage wires and devices. When devices inside of the box wear out, you still need to pull the box and take care of the components.
The signs of wear below cover both concepts.
As for why all of this matters, it’s all about safety. When wear is ignored, it can create risks of shock and electrocution. It also dramatically raises fire risks in a home. On top of that, the electrical joints don’t work as well as they wear down, and that can disrupt electrical flow in the home. The things you run on electricity might not be as reliable until you fix a wear and tear problem.
How to Spot Signs of Wear
Signs of wear are pretty obvious and straightforward. Before you read them, it’s important to know the single safety rule. In most areas, work inside of an electrical box has to be done by an electrician. There are exceptions to that rule, but if you aren’t familiar with them and electrical work, it’s best to let someone with experience and certifications handle the labor.
With that said, here are the warning signs that you have a problem with or inside of an electrical box.
Discoloring
If you see dark marks on an outlet or a switch, that’s a clear sign that the components inside are running too hot. Don’t use that switch or outlet again until you can get the problem fixed.
Feel and Smell
when wires run hot, they won’t always leave scorch marks where you can see them. But, they often produce a burning smell. If you smell burning, turn things off until you can identify the source.
Before wear and tear progresses enough that you can smell it, switches and outlets often feel hot while in use. They shouldn’t. A healthy box can run, and you won’t feel any heat at all.
Performance Issues
If the components in your electrical box aren’t working as well as they used to, you will often see performance issues with electrical devices. Lights flicker. Clocks lose time. Things of that nature suggest an emerging issue.
Sparks or Shocks
Sometimes, you plug something into an outlet, and you see a small spark. If it’s occasional and small, it’s fairly normal. If the sparks get bigger or more frequent, you have an issue that needs attention.
That’s the list. Those are the signs to learn to make sure your electrical boxes, and the components within, are healthy and functional.
