It is a common experience for one to mistakenly or deliberately touch the electrical outlets in their homes to find out that they are hot. It is also very common for people to ignore this and not care about the cause until the outlet is completely damaged after which they laboriously replace it. It is not hard to guess that the preference for the replacement of the sockets (rather than maintenance) at the outlets is partly responsible for this passive attitude by homeowners.

The fact that is being forgotten is that many fire outbreaks in the home start from overheated electrical appliances and outlets or short circuits somewhere in the electrical wiring of the home. Some steps like leaving room for ventilation to an outlet can be taken by the residents of the apartment or homes to avoid such overheating, but other steps may be more complicated and may need the services of a professional electrician.

Shortly we would look at how we can avoid the overheating of electrical outlets but before then let’s see what could cause the overheating.

Loose electrical connections are the commonest causes of the overheating. When connections are not tight enough some strands of the cable bringing or supplying electrical energy to the outlets are pulled out of their points. Now when electrical appliances are connected to these outlets, there are fewer strands available to supply the needed energy. This brings about a phenomenon known as arcing where electricity will have to travel through the tiny air spaces in the loose connections thereby heating up the outlet and increasing the risk of a fire outbreak.

Another thing that could cause overheating is the use of aluminum wiring. Aluminum wires tend to heat up easily and are usually replaced or joined to copper using special skill and knowledge that only professionals possess. Hence it is safe to let them handle this one.

Short circuits are also very popular causes of overheating. This occurs when two wires touch in parts where they are both not insulated. This usually burns surrounding plastics thereby making the easiest to spot. Since they are hot enough to burn plastics, care should be taken when trying to fix them. The best practice, however, will be to let the professionals handle it.

So what do you do when your outlet gets hot?

Well if you are a pretty handy person with some experience of fixing minor electrical faults or repairing some appliances then you might very well be tempted to go at it yourself. However as you can see from the list above, the problem, in this case, can range from simple to complex and even the most experienced handy person could find it difficult locating exactly what the cause may be at the first trials. Hence to avoid danger to health and facility, the safest thing to do in this case is to call a professional.

An electrician from Greentech Electrics is capably up to the task. At Greentech we derive pride from the impressive feedback we get from our customers for the services provided by our electricians who are available 24/7. Our service areas cover so many areas in Melbourne which means we have electricians to serve you in Epping today.