Top Tips to avoid overloading in powerpoint’s

The most common cause of overloaded circuits is too many appliances on a circuit. Talk with your electrician on The Gold Coast about the wiring in your home as overloaded circuits can cause a range of problems.

An overload occurs when the maximum amperage of a circuit is exceeded and appliances need to draw more amperage than the circuit is designed to handle.

Avoid overloading your powerpoints

In older building’s, often the wring circuitry wasn’t designed for the amount of appliances you are using so often strip connectors and double adaptors are used to increase your available powerpoint's, but also increases the likelihood you will overload the circuits.

Piggybacking adaptors or plug strip power-boards can cause an overload resulting in a blackout, or damaged wiring. Unfortunately, because the wiring is usually inside the walls and in other places, most people will not be aware they have damaged or faulty wiring until they have a major problem such as a fire or circuit failure.

Ask your friendly local electrician on The Gold Coast to test your wiring and advise you about installing new circuits were needed. The cost of this is far less than replacing or repairing your property after a fire and gives you peace of mind knowing your family is protected with a safe electrical system.

Understand Amps

It’s important to know that different appliances use different amounts of amps and some use more on startup than when running. An air conditioner or refrigerator will require more amps when they start as will any appliance with an electric motor. This is because it takes a lot of energy to get them started, but once, going they will build a certain amount of momentum allowing them to use less energy.

A refrigerator will use more amperage than a small electric fan and a phone charger will use less power than either.

Each appliance has the amount of amperage it uses marked on it, both at startup and under normal running conditions, so you can assess the amount of amps you are using on an individual circuit and then check the size of the circuit breaker to see if they match. Normally it’s advisable to only use 80% of the amperage rated on a circuit breaker to allow for any variation or surge.

Protecting Against Overloading Power Points

Fuses

Older buildings may still have a fuse box, this is where there are old style ceramic holders that contain fuse wire or resettable fuses. In the event of an overload they are designed to blow or trip out.

Circuit Breakers

Circuit breakers are similar to fuses in that they will trip out when they sense an overload. They contain sensitive switches and are located on your main switch board. Many strip power boards now contain circuit breakers so they will automatically trip out if the circuit from them overloads.

Talk with your friendly local electrician on The Gold Coast about having your building wiring inspected on a regular basis, especially if your building is more than ten years old. They will advise you on a cost effective design that suits your requirements and usage so you are not tempted to resort to using methods that are unsafe to cover all your electrical needs.