Learning from Worldwide Lighting Strategies

In the 21st century, electricity is something that powers so much of our lives. Electricity is used to generate light in lamps, it is used to create heat for cooking, and it is used to charge those all-important mobile phone devices. Because electricity is so present in everyone's lives, it can be easy to think of it as a limitless resource that can be taken advantage of.

But plug too many electrical items into your wall with various socket extensions and you might find that the socket gets overloaded. If you can smell burning or you can see an electrical socket smoking, you need to call emergency electrician right away, because if it is left untreated it could result in a dangerous house fire.

Hopefully it won't get to that point. Take these precautions to stop your plug sockets from overheating:

One Adapter for One Socket

If you plug an adaptor into another adapter, your wall socket is going to get seriously stressed out and potentially overheat. Only use one adapter per socket on the wall.

Choose a Bar Extension

Adapters come in various forms and it is best to go with a bar extension instead of a block adapter as these typically put less strain on the wall socket. Block adapters are also often sold without a fuse. In the event of an excessive current, a fuse is designed to melt and separate the connection. Without this, your socket is far more liable to overheat and start a fire.

Put Extra Sockets in the Wall 

If you find that you are constantly relying on extension leads, why not hire an electrician to put more sockets into the wall so that you are less reliant on adapters? You can then live with less fear about your sockets overheating.

Calculate the Wattage Used 

When you know that the maximum wattage that can be powered by a plug socket is 3000 watts, you can then calculate how much your socket is using at any one time to ensure that it is not being overworked. When you have a spare hour, note down all of the electrical appliances that you use, and write down the wattage they use too. Then when you use an adapter and plug in multiple appliances, you can calculate the total wattage to ensure that overheating does not occur. You might find that plugging in a DVD player, radio, and printer from one socket might be fine, but a kettle and just one other item might be too much.

For more information, contact East Hawthorn Electrical Services.