What Is Reverse Polarity?
Reverse Polarity is when a receptacle is wired backward. This happens when the “hot” wire, also known as the black or red wire, is wired on the neutral side and the neutral wire is wired on the “hot” side. Looking at the featured image above, the outlet tester shows exactly this. While the circuit is […]
The Importance of a Drip Loop on Your Home
You may have never heard of the term of drip loop, but it is quite important to your home. A drip loop, is a loop or dip in the service entrance lines right before they enter the service mast conduit on the roof. The drip loop prevents water from entering the service mast and ultimately, […]
Cut MultiStrand Wires & Circuit Hazards
First off, let me give a huge thank you to our Inspector Wilmer Mollfulleda for supplying these wonderful pictures on cut multistrand wires. Just as an fyi, you can always request your inspector when you schedule with us. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming… MultiStrand Wires & Circuits These wire types, as seen on […]
Neutrals & Grounds On Same Bar in SubPanels
When can neutrals and grounds be on the same bar in sub panels? Can they at all and why is this an issue? Let’s talk about neutrals, grounds, and subpanels. First, let’s talk about the different types of panels. What is a sub panel? To understand a subpanel, we need to understand what a main […]
Mismatched Breakers: Can Breaker “X” Go Into Panel “Y”?
We often get the question, can this branded breaker go into a different branded panel? While the short answer is it depends, let’s talk about why mismatched breakers can cause issues. Furthermore, let’s talk about why home inspectors continuously write up mismatched breakers. Are Mismatched Breakers a Defect? Breakers are tested and designed to fit […]
My Circuit Breakers Keep Tripping: What To Do
A circuit breaker that keeps on tripping can be quite annoying and cause for concern. However, your circuit breaker could be either doing it’s job or just faulty so there is no reason to worry! Let’s talk about the different causes and how you can fix them. Causes For Circuit Breakers That Keep Tripping Faulty […]
The Most Common Electrical Questions & Answers
We are a home inspection company, so you could say we get A LOT of common electrical questions from home buyers, sellers, and real estate agents. That being said, here are the most common questions we receive, followed by their answers from a licensed home inspector. What is an AFCI? An AFCI is an arc-fault […]
Pool Electrical Bonding & Grounding
So, in one of our previous articles, we discussed the importance of a pool inspection. Within that blog, we briefly mentioned pool bonding and grounding. With this article, we are going to take a deeper look into bonding pool equipment and why you need to do it. What is Bonding and Why Do We Do […]
How to Fix a Power Surge & Preventative Actions
What is a power surge? A power surge can be an unexpected surge of electricity caused by another item on the electrical system. A few examples: a large appliance may back feed electricity to your home, lightning strikes, trees hit a transformer, or even small appliances like a hairdryer back feeds electricity. How to Fix […]
Double Tapped Breakers: Why is it Bad & Simple Fix!
So what’s the deal with double tapped breakers? Are they really that bad as everyone has made them out to be? Can it cause your house to burn down? Well, although double tapped breakers are technically wrong and theoretically could burn your house down depending on the conditions, it is not likely. A double tapped […]
