7 Tips To Keep You Safe If You’re Using A Power Board

Working with electricity can be extremely dangerous if you do not approach it with the right expertise, safety training, and equipment. In such a case, hiring a professional electrician in Karalee for your home will be the best decision for your family's safety. If your power board needs repair, installation, or replacement job, then a skilled electrician knows what needs to be done perfectly.

If you are using a power board and it gets overloaded it could soon create a problem that involves a call to a St Kilda electrician, for instance, to fix the issue and restore safety to your home.

Here are some useful tips to help you stay safe when using a power board.

Always choose overload protection

One of the best tips to remember is the need to use a power board that has an overload protection device.

Having this safety option will ensure that if the electrical current flowing through the board breaches the board’s rating the power will shut off, thanks to overload protection.

Be careful not to overload your board in the first place

While it’s a great idea to have that element of protection in place so that the power board shuts down when it gets overloaded it also makes a lot of sense to take steps to avoid that scenario in the first place.

The best way of doing that would be to think about how much you are asking your power board to cope with.

A standard power board is only designed to cope with low current appliances, so washing machines, heaters, and stoves, for example, should be plugged directly into a wall socket rather than through a power board.

Don’t join boards together

It might seem like a good solution to piggyback one power board off another to give you more socket availability but that’s a bad idea and should be avoided, for safety’s sake.

Stick to one appliance per socket to keep within the rating of the board.

Check the rating

Your power board will usually be rated to 10 amps and this information is clearly labeled. Don’t be tempted to ignore this rating and exceed the safety limit that is there for a good reason.

Think about where you place your power board

Always locate your power board where it is unlikely to get damaged. Also, check it regularly for wear and tear.

Think about the threat of overheating

If your power board is not placed in a location that is properly ventilated you are heightening the risk of a fire.

For instance, if your power board is tucked away in a poorly ventilated area next to a flammable material like curtains, it could potentially start a fire when it overheats.

Make sure the plugs are in properly

Another classic safety faux-pas is when a plug has not been put in securely on one of the power board sockets.

Loose plugs can easily create a poor connection and that can easily lead to sparking or overheating. Both of these scenarios spell danger and can often be avoided if you simply make sure that every plug in the power board is fitted securely.

These simple but effective safety tips could make all the difference when using a power board. If you are in any doubt or think you have a problem, it often pays to call an electrician right away.