Your Stamford & Fairfield County home’s electrical wiring can easily be due for an upgrade and rewiring. Luckily if you live in a home for decades, or you recently acquired an older home through purchase or inheritance, there are signs that will tell you if your home needs a rewiring. Some indications are quite common, but few realize what the signs are that point to the home inadequately. After you get a clearer understanding from recognizing the signs, you will know whether or not your home is due for some upgrades and rewiring services. Today, we at Sentry Electric would like to share some of the common red flags that indicate your home is due for some rewiring.

Signs I Need to Rewire My Old House

Flickering & Dimming Lights. A common, but a very abnormal occurrence is when the lights dim every time your flip on an appliance or run your vacuum. The electrical flow is not able to accommodate the extra surge, which causes the lights to dim to compensate. Your home will not experience any dimmed lights when the vacuum or extra appliances are running with a home that is fully updated.
Permanent Extension Cords. Extension cords were never met for daily use, but only as a temporary solution. If you discover you have come to depend on them daily, you need more outlets installed in your house. Outlet installations with the rewiring services are in order to better proved the electrical demands you require.
Breakers that often trip. Because it is common, many assume it is normal for breakers to trip on a regular basis, but this is a clear sign your house is in need of some rewiring. Naturally running hot, the overloaded wires are the potential cause for home fires. As a warning, frequently tripped breakers should encourage you to get rewiring services done before your home catches fire or ensures extreme problems.
Installing New Appliances. With the inexpensive multitude of appliances and electronic devices, the average household has more and more gadgets that use electricity. With these commodities being in high demand, the home is not able to keep up with the electrical needs. The flickering or dimming lights or the breaker continuing to trip, and other related problems will frequently manifest once the load becomes to great for the wiring.
Rewire an Old House. Older houses were simply not designed to accommodate the electrical today’s electrical output. Homes constructed before 1970 are definitely behind with the electrical system, and if they have not been rewired, or even required in the last5-10 years, they are likely demonstrating all of the red flags the home is in need of rewiring. Contractors did not come to see all of the gadgets, appliances, printers, computers, home theater systems, and both other major and minor electrical devices that would need energy.

Electrical Wiring & More in Greenwich, New Canaan, Darien, Norwalk, Westport, Southbury, Stamford, CT & Fairfield County, Connecticut

The leading cause of residential fire, according to the National Fire Prevention Association, is faulty wiring. As a concern for your safety and eagerness to deliver quality workmanship, Sentry Electric is readily available to provide rewiring and upgrade services to your Stamford & Fairfield County home. Contact us today!

Most people move into a house happy with the way that it is, while others move in seeing all the options that the home has to offer. You can make some upgrades to areas of your house that add value and make the house feel more like what you want it to. This is of course in the way of décor and paint color but it can be more then that too. You can choose to upgrade the layout of the house and remove walls to open the living space. When it comes to the electrical system there are lots of ways to add to your home and upgrade what you already have. The lights in your house may be lacking, leaving space to make some great changes. One addition that people are making more often in their home are recessed lights. When the homes are built they might be skimpy on how many they choose to place or where they place them. Adding more recessed light or upgrading to recessed light has many benefits.

Sentry Electric Lists Advantages of Recessed Lights

Proper Placement of Recessed Lighting Opens the Room: When you have a room that feels a little small and closed off there are a few things that you can do. Of course you can take on a home renovation and open the walls up or you can take a much simpler approach. The best way to open the space up is to add lights to the room. The best lights to do that in a small space is to used recessed lights. They are a great way to add light to a space which will make the room look and feel more open.
Recessed Lighting Leaves Space Open: When you want to start adding light to a room you have to get a table that you can set near a plug. Then you have to purchase a lamp that you can plug in and turn on when you enter the room. This will take up the floor space in your house that you could be using in another way. You can also avoid the table but you have to buy a floor lamp that will take up less space but still has to be in a certain area. The better choice you have is to have recessed lights added to the room. They are wired to a switch and leaves the entire room open. You can decorate in any way that you choose without being limited.
Recessed Lights are Universal: The great thing about recessed lights when it comes to your house is that they are a great choice for any room in the house. You can use them in a kitchen, bathroom and main living room if you want to. You can add décor around the room to set the tone while letting the recessed lights bring in the brightness. They fit any type of style that you want from modern to rustic.

Lighting Upgrades & More in Greenwich, New Canaan, Darien, Norwalk, Westport, Southbury, Stamford, CT & Fairfield County, Connecticut

Sentry Electric has the ability to make a plan to upgrade all the lights in your house. Call us today to meet with one of our lighting consultants.

We all know that we’re supposed to stop, drop and roll if you catch on fire, but that only works if you know there’s a fire. In 1915, you’d have a one in ten chance that a fire would kill you if you lived in a home or an apartment. One hundred years later, that statistic has dropped to one in one hundred with the invention of the practical and inexpensive smoke detector. Your home has multiple smoke detectors, but most of us don’t even know how they work. How do they detect smoke? If you know how they work, it will make it easier for you to choose the type of smoke detector and where they should be placed to keep your home and family safe.

Types of Smoke Detectors

You probably thought that all smoke detectors are created equal. Most homes have ionization detectors or photoelectric detectors. They both do the same job but operate in different ways that may lead you to choose one over the other.
Ionization smoke detector. This smoke detector has a very small amount of radioactive material that sits in a chamber between two metal plates. The radioactive material is americium-241. The two plates continuously emit a minor electrical charge back and forth. If smoke enters the chamber, it interferes with the electrical charge, kills the current and causes the alarm to go off.
Photoelectric smoke detector. This smoke detector is also known as an optical smoke detector and uses a tiny beam of light from a diode. This beam of light moves from the diode to the sensor chamber. If smoke comes into contact with this beam of light it will shift the beam of light and the alarm will go off. It would be like the effect of throwing some dirt into the path of a flashlight’s beam.

Best Smoke Detector for Your Home

One isn’t better than the other, but they both use different technology and will react a little differently. They both work better at detecting different types of fire. An ionization detector works better at detecting hot fires because they are extremely sensitive, and a photoelectric smoke detector does a far better job at detecting smoldering fires. The best way to keep your home and family is to have both types of smoke detectors in your home. While this may seem like a hassle, smoke detectors are pretty inexpensive, and much cheaper than the damage your home and family will experience in the event of a fire.

Electrical Upgrades & More in Greenwich, New Canaan, Darien, Norwalk, Westport, Southbury, Stamford, CT & Fairfield County, Connecticut

But, if you want those smoke detectors to keep you safe, you’ll need to make sure they are working. When you hear that chirping sound coming from your smoke detector, it’s time to change the battery. To avoid this chirping sound at 2 am, when you’re sound asleep, change them on a regular basis. A battery should keep a smoke detector working for about 6 months, so change the batteries twice a year. If you have any questions about smoke detectors, contact the experts at Sentry Electrical. We have certified and licensed professionals to take care of all your electrical needs. Contact us today!

Some people wait until there is a problem before they repair or update areas of the house. This is a bad habit and can actually lead to more damage or hazards. When it comes to your electrical work you want to make sure that you have inspections done regularly so that things do not go undetected. The wires that are pulled through the house are considered hot and that means that electricity is pulsing through them. One result of electricity is heat and that can lead to a fire. It is a good idea to keep an eye on problems that might come up and take them on before they cause major damage to your home. That is why you want to make sure you have your electrical system inspected and also make upgrades. There are upgrades that you can make to each room that would be beneficial to you and your family. One area of the house that you can focus on is in the kitchen. The kitchen is a major part of what makes a house work so spending some effort to better it is a good idea.

Sentry Electric Lists Kitchen Electrical Wiring Design Upgrades

Installation of Pop Up Outlets in Granite or Other Countertops: One of the commodities that most homeowner seem to need in their kitchen are outlets. If you are trying to prepare a large meal or canning food or prepping food it is important to have the space and of course the electrical outlets that are needed. The problem is that there is only a certain amount of space that you can have an outlet unless you line a bunch on the walls. This is not pleasing to the eye and that is why you need a better option. One of the ways that you can add what you need is to add a pop up outlet. It is a series of plugs that you can have installed in the counter space that can be pressed down flush. You can pop it up to use it when needed and nicely move it out of the way when you are done.
Install Invisible Electrical Outlets: If you walk in a kitchen in just about any house you will see that there are items that are left on the counters. These might be your coffee maker or your microwave. Does it ever frustrate you when you try and push it back only to have the plug keeping a few inches off the wall? This can make the counters look less streamline. There is a great option that you can have installed in your kitchen. There is an outlet that is called an invisible outlet that is inserted into the wall. This gives the plug part of the cord somewhere to go while still letting you push the item back against the wall.
Updating Kitchen Fluorescent & Other Lighting: Another part of a kitchen that you can spend some effort making updates to is the lighting in your kitchen. You can have lights installed that are more efficient and able to run for more hours. This will eliminate the amount of times that you have to find a ladder and change them out. It is also better for your homes energy usage as well.

Electrical Upgrades & More in Greenwich, New Canaan, Darien, Norwalk, Westport, Southbury, Stamford, CT & Fairfield County, Connecticut

Sentry Electric can come out to your home and do a thorough inspection and come up with a plan to upgrade the electrical system in your kitchen. Call to meet with an electrician today.