Electricity: Your Home’s Nervous System

Turn on a light and chances are you’re not thinking of the hydroelectric, nuclear, or coal-fired generating plant that has helped produce your instant illumination. “The chandelier was brought to you by… Ohm to Home Power! We are here to brighten your day!” While it’s good to know how your utility generates power, what should concern you most is where power enters your home. Utility transmission lines snaked their way into the brains of your electrical system: the service panel (where there are switches call records) or the fuse box (where you’ll find old-style fuses).

Fuse boxes and service panels are not trifle with. Just as with your water pipes, there is a main switch that will shut down power to the entire house. Learn where it is and how to turn it off. Whenever you do any electrical work, shut down the circuits in that area. When in doubt, shut down all the power. Tough toenails if you have to reset your digital clocks afterward.

The electrical system can be likened to the body’s nervous system. When you throw the switch, and impulse of power instantly flows the fixture and you have illumination. Just like synapses firing in your body, it’s pretty instantaneous. It’s not as if the power goes away when the lights are off. It’s always there, you just haven’t told the “brain” to release it.

The electricity of your home is mapped out in mini “neighborhoods,” called circuits. Some circuits have greater demand and get more power than others. For example, a washer and dryer will gobble up more amps of power than the little powder room down the hall. The washer and dryer probably each have their own circuit (a “dedicated” circuit). Meanwhile, the powder room probably shares its power with the hallway and maybe a couple of bedrooms. The key is, there is only so much load that a single circuit can handle. Too much power on one circuit and ZAP! The breaker trips or the fuse blows (both built in safety measures), and you lose power to that part of the house. It’s the electrical equivalent of stubbing your toe — the synapses firing in the brain immediately responds with a pain riddled “ouch!”

Like the plumbing lines, the wires that carry power to all your lights and appliances are hidden behind the walls. So if you get a wild hankering to rip through a wall someday, hold on there, partner. There is power in them thar walls! Any demolition work needs to take several factors into consideration; electrical power is just one of them.

While you may not need to fully understand the inner workings of your home’s electrical system, you do need to know how to reset a flipped circuit breaker, or replace a fuse. When a breaker trips, it flips itself to be “off” position, shutting off the flow of electricity to that circuit. To reset it, switch it back to the “on” position. If the same breaker keeps tripping repeatedly, and you feel you’re not overloading the circuit, have an electrician look at it. It might be symptomatic of a bigger problem.

When a fuse blows, its face is no longer clear. Carefully unscrew the fuse and replace it with the exact same amperage. (The numbers “15” or “20” will be marked on the fuse.) When you buy replacements, get a couple of spares so you won’t be left in the dark. And keep your fingers far and away from the fuse socket, or your nervous system will be in for a shock!