Owning a home here on the east coast brings a lot of interesting weather to your front door. Heavy storms can slam your home and present threats to home electrical systems during all 4 seasons. To avoid a catastrophic failure in each season, watch for these major problems of each season.
Winter
Starting with the current season, winter brings perhaps the most challenges and threats to your electrical system. Excessive use of heating systems and small personal heaters can throw a breaker or even blow a circuit. Ice and snow can bring down powerlines, freeze and crack cables and short circuit outlets, and burst pipes form ice can cause devastation to a basement electrical system. Be sure to take extra precaution to keep basements warm and dry, water flowing safely, and protect your systems from damage with surge protectors and electrical safety equipment.
Spring
During the spring, rain-showers and snow can quickly overwhelm lawns, basements, and plumbing systems if clogs are present within. The excess moisture can lead to further danger to your system’s circuits and increase chances of a power surge. Additionally, overflowing gutters can get weighed down and fall upon HVAC units and other electrical systems you may have outside. Be sure to keep up with spring cleaning to keep your water drainage systems unclogged!
Summer
Summer brings heavy thunderstorms and heavy branches full of rainwater and leaves prone to more heavy falls. The increased rainfall can soften the ground to the point of bringing down whole trees as the soil erodes, causing devastating damage-often to powerlines. During thunderstorms, powerful lightning strikes can cause electrical fires, or strike homes causing outages and fried circuitry. Since lightning strikes are impossible to truly predict or prevent, there are few ways to prevent damage. Grounding circuits properly, implementing surge protectors into most large power users, and utilizing lightning rods where necessary are all great measures to take for protection.
Fall
As the seasons change from summer to fall, violent hurricanes and tornadoes become common and a major threat to homes and businesses-especially across the eastern seaboard. Trees come down, branches fall, and leaves and water swirl and fall upon every surface. Same with spring, summer, and winter, when rain does fall (it’s less frequent, but more severe when it does) it can be devastating in several ways. Be sure to keep up with the amount of leaves falling into your water systems to prevent clogs and overwhelming the systems!
All 4 seasons present weather-related challenges which include threats to home electrical systems, and all of them can negatively affect your electrical system. Be sure to take precaution as you enter each!