A new broom sweeps clean

January Frost

The Shock Doctors ECRA/ESA #7001377

Writing your Prescription for Electrical Safety Jan 2013

In This Issue

Missing Fuses

Missing Fuse Holders

Over Fusing

Proper Protection

JANUARY SPECIAL

Doc's Club

Orillia 705-326-4333

Barrie 705-728-3932

Muskoka 705-687-1672

Tollfree 1-877-646-7440

info@theshockdoctors.ca

Greetings!

My Wife's Grandparents had an odd New Years tradition.

Their first purchase of the new year would be a brand new broom. Their theory was because a new broom sweeps clean, this spills over into the rest of your life which would be tidy and in order for the upcoming year. You can imagine the joy in the house when my wife's Mom received a new broom as a gift from her in-laws each year.

I had the pleasure of witnessing two of these heart warming moments.

This month I would like to show you a few fuse panel issues that people put on the top of their priority list last year and explain the reasons we were happy they did.

Terry Carman

Chief of Staff

(If you recognise your panel, email me. If you are correct, we will award you 5 Air miles reward miles for being a celebrity!)

Missing fuses

The most commonly seen scenario:

A fuse continues to blow and the homeowner cannot find the cause. It has become so annoying that the home owner removes the fuse and makes due without power to that circuit.

This empty spot is now a potentially-fatal open power supply. It should be immediately filled with another fuse (even a blown one) that prevents fingers from contact to the main power that runs the house.

Missing Fuse Holders (Fuse Blocks)

Two fuse holders (fuse blocks) in this electrical panel are completely missing.

Typical scenario: The fuse blocks have become damaged over time and will no longer stay firmly attached to the panel. The handyman moves the wiring to another space in the panel and leaves these spaces unused and unprotected.

These spaces need to have manufacturer specific protective fillers inserted to protect the homeowner from direct contact the main power coming into the home. (You cannot use a different brand filler or a "custom made" filler.)

Touching anything inside these spaces puts you in direct contact with the full number of amps that your panel can provide: This can be a 60 amp, but is usually 100 amps and sometimes 200 amps.

(Fun but fatal fact: 0.1 amps of electricity can be lethal)

OVER FUSING

The biggest problem with fuse panels is the relentless use of fuses that are too big.

If a fuse keeps blowing, it is a red flag that there is a real problem. Either there is something faulty on the line and that fuse is protecting you from it, or there is too heavy of a load for the wiring and the fuse is letting you know you are past your electrical limit for that wire. If the load on that wire is too much the fuse is supposed to blow and shut off the power to that wire. If it does not blow, (because someone has screwed in an oversized fuse) the wire overheats and puts the home at risk of a fire.

Fuses controlling LIGHTS AND PLUGS are never to have a fuse bigger than 15 amps.

BASEBOARD HEATING CIRCUITS AND HOT WATER TANKS typically use 20 amp fuses.

AIR CONDITIONING UNITS AND DRYERS typically use 30 amp fuses.

ELECTRIC STOVES use 40 amp fuses. (available in cartridge style only)

Proper protection for fuse panels

Fuse rejectors are inserts that go into your fuse panel to block a larger amperage fuse from being installed where a smaller one is required.

15 & 20 amp fuse rejectors

A 15 amp fuse rejector will only allow 15 amp fuses to be screwed in to them. Nothing bigger will fit.

A 20 amp fuse rejector will only allow 20 amp and 15 amp fuses to be screwed in to them. Nothing bigger will fit.

Fuse rejectors must never be installed without the main power to the house being off.

It is NOT A DYI PROJECT.

Newsletter Subscribers ONLY

January ONLY!

Happy New Year to our newsletter readers.

We are celebrating this with a recap of the best of 2012!

Choose from any ONE of last year's specials and promotions.

1. Receive an additional Sycom SURGE protector- 6-plug outlet cube with phone/fax/modem and AV protection when you have surge protection installed on your electrical breaker panel. ($396)

2. 2 for 1 GFCI protection. Upgrade any receptacle to gfci protected (indoor or outside) and we will upgrade a second one for free.

3. Rebate the HST on any outdoor buried cable work. - book now, but look forward to this project in the spring.

4. Draw a card from the deck and receive the value of your card as your percent savings! 2-10 = 2-10% (

any draw below 5 gets ONE CHANCE to draw again.)

Jack=11%, Queen=12%, King=HST, Ace = 15%

5. Double Airmiles reward miles - one mile for EVERY $10 OF ELECTRICAL WORK

Call or email before January 31st to request your choice of promotion.

And finally this month, Ask the Doc...

Dear Doc:

I bought a new phone and the electric charger for it is a 5.0Volt 1000 mAmp DC output
I have an old 5 pin charger that is a 5.0Volt 800mA that fits the phone and wondered if I could use this to charge the phone or would it blow the phone up? Someone at my work told me that as long as the 5.0 matched the other number doesn't matter. I am not going to do anything with the charger till I hear back.

As well, I have another question/scenario that might fit into the "ask the doc". My blue tooth earpiece charger is a 5volt 500mA charger. my blackberry charger is a 5V 700mA. The blackberry adapter would fit the earpiece, but would it destroy the earpiece as the blackberry charger is more mA than the earpiece charger. I am not going to do this but thought that it might be a good thing to cover the question from both sides.

Thanks, Diane

Dear Diane,

The lower amp charger will work, but it will charge more slowly than the correct charger.

I am always a little hesitant to use non original equipment manufacturer specified equipment due to warranty issues further down the road so you may want to keep this in mind.

About the second scenario: Good to bring that up! Using a higher amperage charger than what is specified will allow too much electricity in and shorten the lifespan of the equipment (sometimes slowly, sometimes causing it to burn up on the spot).

Direct line to the Doc
If you have a question about the health of your electrical system or would like to investigate a little "plastic surgery", ask the doctor: Click and send your question to terry@theshockdoctors.ca.

Happy New Year ,

We wish you a year of bountiful health and happiness.

Cheri

The Shock Doctors