Check the Home For Electrical Safety Before Trick-or-Treaters Show Up

Three Ways to Keep the Home Safe This Halloween

Halloween isn’t considered a dangerous celebration, but despite all the fun to be had, there are precautions to take to ensure that everyone stays safe. Maybe that means inspecting candy hauls or making sure costumes are bright enough to be seen on dark roadways, but it can also mean keeping the home safe from hazards. 

A common Halloween hazard that is often overlooked is electricity. Halloween is a holiday for which people often decorate, rivaling even Christmas. With decorations going up, it’s time for electricians to issue warnings they usually give around Christmas. Here are tips from electricians to ensure the home stays safe during Halloween. 

Inspect Halloween Decorations

Decorations that use electricity have rapidly become the most popular for Halloween decorations. Whether they be strands of lights or Halloween-themed yard inflatables, many homeowners go all out. An issue with these kinds of decorations for any holiday is that they are stored for so long, often under less-than-ideal conditions. It’s a lot of fun to decorate, but cleaning up is a chore, and decorations usually get stuffed back into boxes in ways that can damage them. 

Inspecting Halloween decorations for damaged cords, faulty wiring, or other damage as they go up is a great way to increase electrical safety around the home. These damages can increase the chance of electrical fires, so if homeowners notice it on a decoration, that decoration should not be used. Simply by taking a few minutes to inspect decor, homeowners can ensure that their homes and families are safe this Halloween. 

Plan Ahead with Safety in Mind

Decorating for any holiday takes planning, and Halloween is no different. Like at Christmas, outlets get overloaded, and extension cords are irresponsibly used to plug decorations all over the property. Instead of throwing everything up in a hurry, take a quick moment to think ahead. 

Overloading outlets is another huge fire hazard. While breakers and electrical codes are intended to prevent the dangers of overloading circuits, fires break out every year during the holidays for just that reason. When decorating, always plan to distribute the electrical load between multiple circuits instead of taxing a single one, or at the very least, multiple outlets. Also, whenever possible, use low-wattage electronics and LED lights to reduce the overall load on the system. 

Surge Protectors  

Another way to prevent electrical fires while protecting all appliances, devices, and Halloween decorations that are plugged in is by installing a surge protector. Surge protectors prevent the dangers of power surges and protect electronics from spikes in voltage in an electrical circuit. 

Power surges can be caused by lightning strikes, downed power lines, tripped circuit breakers, and even turning large appliances on and off. The stronger the surge, the more damage it can cause. Any electronics or appliances plugged in can be ruined, and electrical fires can occur. So help combat the dangers of power surges this Halloween and get a surge protector.