Florida is heading quickly into hurricane season. In order to prepare your home for potential risks, it is wise to turn to some prevention and safety. You need to be as equipped as possible to stay safe and keep our electrical systems protected against damage caused in hurricane weather. A prepared quick and easy safety guide for your use is what we at Simon Electric would like to share today. It is best to look at your preparation and proceedings in three parts: before, during, and after because the dynamic changes a bit according to the situation at hand.
Plan to Stay Safe During a Hurricane
In addition to reducing the risks of power or function loss in lesser storms or thunderstorms and beef up your home safety, there are a few things you can do.
1) In the event of an outage, secure a backup power source that is sufficient to power critical appliances or functions. Though a whole-home generator system is more effective, and can power much more, a portable generator is good enough for one thing , like HVAC, cooking, and so forth.
2) Any tree branches that are intruding on or hovering over powerlines in your area should be trimmed by professionals. Without taking a line with it and causing fires, a downed tree causes plenty enough damage.
3) Keep non-perishable foods in an easy to access sheltered area in your home, and ensure you have a clean water supply bottled and ready and maintain a fully equipped medical kit. In order to reduce and mitigate the risks of power surges that come with lightning strikes, lo. ok into getting whole-home surge protection.
Hurricane Electrical Safety Tips
There are some vitally important things that must get done before the storm hits in earnest once the weather has been declared. Make sure to apply the following list below.
1) In order to prevent surges or damage caused by lightning strikes or water intrusion, unplug all appliances for major storms. Since the connection to your electrical supply is still maintained in that case, and surges or fires are still completely possible, simply switching them off isn’t enough.
2) Disengage your breakers at the main shutoff in addition to unplugging.
3) Being ideal to currently shut off for your safety, for extremely dangerous weather, ensure you switch to flashlights in lieu of electrical lighting. Since they can easily be toppled and cause a fire, never use candles.
Safety Precautions for After a Hurricane
Stay where you are as long as the area remains safe is the best thing you can do after is a storm. Electrical shock or electrocution can be the result from venturing out can lead you to downed power lines or exposed live wires.
1) Since it could potentially be electrified if poles or lines are down, avoid standing water.
2) Until you have been notified that it is safe to do so from your utility provider, do not restore power in your home. If you do it too early, it could be dangerous.
3) To reduce the risk of overloading, turn on appliances gradually once power is restored safely.
4) Call Simon Electric immediately if damage occurred to any of your electrical systems.
