When it comes to your home, there is no doubting how important the electrical system element actually is. With that being said, there is actually much more riding on whether or not the electrical system is going to be working correctly and safely. But just because the electrical system is one of the more important ones, does that mean that you will always need to bring in Sparkyologist electrician Sydney whenever you have something go wrong?

If you are not familiar with your home’s electrical system, then the answer to this question may be yes for you. However, there are going to be a few things that you should check yourself prior to picking up the phone to contact a professional electrician. Now keep in mind that the answer to all of your electrical problems may be sitting right there in front of you, so be sure that you do this little bit of troubleshooting before you contact your local electrician.

Always Check for ‘Overlamping’

If you notice that your electrical issues are stemming from a single light fixture, you should always start by checking the bulbs. The first question you should ask yourself is whether or not the bulb has burnt out. As simple as it may seem, with bulbs lasting so long now a days, it is very common to overlook this little detail.

Another, much less obvious problem that you can be experiencing is known as overlamping. This is when you have a bulb that is in a fixture that has a much higher wattage than it is supposed to be handling. For example, if you have a 100-watt lightbulb and install it into a lamp that is only designed to handle a max power of 50 watts, you can have an overlamping situation.

While this may not sound like that big a deal, it has the potential to melt your lamps socket, as well as damage all of the wires within the fixture. This type of damage can very easily create fire risks that are referred to as arc faults. Essentially, the electricity that is supposed to power the lightbulb is able to jump onto furniture, the carpet, table, etc. and start a fire.

Check the Circuit Breaker

Most houses today are going to have a very easy to check circuit breaker installed somewhere. If you notice that the electrical isn’t working correctly or at all, you can simply open the door of the circuit breaker box and flip the switch back to the ‘on’ position. If your home is older, you may have to look for a fuse box. If this is the case, all you need to do is look for the cloudy fuse and replace it.

Some of the other simple methods of checking your electrical system troubles include:

• Check to see if the lights are out in the neighborhood
• Reset the GFCI outlet

If you do these and the problem is still not fixed, then you should call your local electrical professional for help.