Tech Tips

Things to do before you call.

Power is out to the receptacle

• Check the electric panel for a tripped breaker.
• Check the GFCI protection: Many of the receptacles located in your home and specifically located in the bathrooms and kitchen are protected by a special GFCI, ground fault circuit interruption, system. Usually you can tell the GFCI receptacles because they have the “trip” and “reset” button on them. These GFCI receptacles may be providing power to the other receptacles without the buttons and this is tricky. So, if power is out to a receptacle one of the first things to do is to go around the house and test all of the GFCI receptacles by pressing the “trip” button and then the “reset” button and see if this restores the power. HINT, in many older homes (10 to 30 years old) many times the main GFCI receptacle for the bathrooms and/or exterior receptacles are located next to the electric panel.
  
  Some homes have no GFCI receptacles, but instead use GFCI breakers located in the electrical panel and some homes have both. So, you may have found these tripped breakers in step one.

WARNING: A tripped breaker or tripped GFCI receptacle may be a warning sign. If they continue to trip, you should contact us to check the system.

Light won’t come on

• Check the switch: Believe it or not, many times we get out to the home and find that switch you forgot you had. It was on the other side of the room and was turned off.
• Check the bulb.
• Check for a tripped breaker.

Breaker won’t reset

• Most tripped breakers are sitting in the middle position, but they may also still be in the ON or OFF position. If the breakers is in the middle position or in the OFF position, it’s tripped or OFF and the breaker must be pushed completely to the OFF position before pushing back to the ON position in order to reset it.
• The tricky one is the tripped breaker sitting in the ON position. This is often hard to find, one trick is to slightly (very slightly) jiggle the breakers, and if you find one that is looser than the others it may be the tripped breaker. Try turning it OFF and than back ON.

WARNING: Sensitive electronic equipment should be turned off prior to flipping breakers ON and OFF to avoid disruptive power surges and equipment damage. Non-trained persons should not take the panel cover off. If the breaker box or breaker fells HOT to the touch, it’s best to turn that breaker or the entire panel off and give us a call. Many breakers feeding your heavy equipment – like an electric heater – may fell warm to the touch and this is usually OK. HOT is not OK; HOT means you can’t keep your finger on the breaker for more than a minute.