Q: Hit or Miss for the Holidays? Troubleshoot and solve intermittent issues
Few things are more annoying than electrical issues in your home during the holidays. It always seems to happen at the wrong time. To make matters worse, intermittent problems only happen sometimes and can feel like they are totally random.
Unfortunately, the holiday season can create the perfect storm for issues that can appear intermittent or require troubleshooting. We have friends and family visiting, are cooking and cleaning more than usual, have guests staying in a spare room that is normally vacant and are putting up decorations and stringing lights. All of these activities can contribute to electrical problems that wouldn’t normally surface or are conditional/intermittent in nature.
These are equally frustrating from the electrician’s side, we hear “everything is working fine now” when we arrive or receive the dreaded “it’s not working again” call after our visit. Our goal is always to fix something right the first time but sometimes we can’t replicate the problem during our initial diagnosis or visit.
Types of issues that may be intermittent include: breakers tripping repeatedly, GFCI faults or AFCI breakers tripping. A non-functional switch or fixture is likely a straightforward fix.
Why does it take multiple visits or additional charges to troubleshoot?
The majority of the time our team can diagnose and fix most problems during a routine service call. If we can’t locate or replicate the issue, it may require a second visit or additional troubleshooting to locate the cause. If the problem is beyond our initial diagnosis or related to another system in the home, we may need to do additional troubleshooting to resolve the bigger problem. Homeowner’s can often help us troubleshoot by gathering information about when or what was happening when the problem occurred. Be sure to consider and let us know about any of the following:
History of the home and systems: Have you recently added or replaced a major appliance or system? Do you have an addition or add-on to your home? Was the work permitted when it was done?
Conditions when it happens: Is it impacted by weather? Does it only happen when it’s raining or very cold out? What appliances were running? Does it only happen when you plug in the vacuum cleaner or have a dual oven running?
Check for common culprits: Has a cord frayed on a lamp or other plugged in device? Did you overload a power strip with the holiday lights? Is a GFCI switch tripped in another room or location?
This information can help us pinpoint and fix the issue. We once had a customer who was experiencing multiple AFCI faults and we could not replicate the problem even after 3 visits. We finally figured out that the culprit was a frayed computer cord that the daughter was using when she came home to visit every other weekend. Without the homeowner’s help we would have never known why it was happening. (Fortunately a fresh charging cable for the laptop was an easy fix!)
Don’t let intermittent issues get the best of you. Luckily, most issues are pretty straightforward to diagnose and repair. One way or another we will get the issue resolved, our team loves a good mystery!
Ask the Electrician is a column we publish with our advertising partner WCHL/Chapelboro. In “Ask The Electrician,” Scott answers common questions about electrical work, from switches and outlets to safety issues and preventative maintenance. If you have a suggested question for us to answer – or need an electrician – please reach out to our office.
See the article on Chapelboro.com: Troubleshooting Intermittent Issues