Kids who grow up in a modern home and never live in an older place may never encounter the differences in electrical fixtures that are characteristic of old residences. As adults, they may fall in love with a house built before the 1950s that still has many of the old electrical features. Now, confusion sets in as they can’t plug in their three-pronged cords into two-pronged outlets. They’ll need local electrical contractors in Matthews NC to do some upgrading so they can safely use all their electrical devices.
It’s possible to buy adapters that allow a three-pronged device to be inserted into an outlet with only two slots, but this is inadvisable. That third prong grounds the equipment and prevents the risk of a serious shock. Not all equipment has three-prong plugs, but those with any metal casing must have that feature. This explains why some of the seemingly larger devices, such as a vacuum cleaner made mostly of plastic, only have two prongs on the plug. If the home still has an old fuse box without proper grounding, local electrical contractors in Matthews NC can upgrade the wiring to a circuit breaker system.
Another anomaly people may find in an older house is a plethora of outlets with two slots of the same size. Many of today’s electrical devices cannot be plugged into those outlets because the prongs are two different sizes. Those plugs are intended to fit into outlets with corresponding slot sizes. The larger slot is for the hot wire and the smaller one for the neutral wire. With same-sized two-pronged plugs, it doesn’t matter what type of outlet they are inserted into. However, as with converting three-pronged plugs to two prongs, there are safety issues with using adapters to modify different-sized prongs.
The best solution is to hire a contractor like Gowdy Electric to upgrade the home’s wiring. Everyone can then rest assured that the risk of electrical shock has been minimized and that there is no fire hazard from old, outdated and unsafe wiring. Please visit the website website name to learn more about this particular organization.
