As the Christmas season approaches homeowners are starting to think about putting up their exterior Christmas lighting.
Christmas Lighting problems
At Blue Crest Electric we receive quite a few calls during this time of year from homeowners who are unable to set up their Christmas lights as there is no power to their outdoor outlets.
Often our clients tell us, “This has never happened before, and we set up these same Christmas lights every year!"
During the year if you have purchased and installed any new power-hungry appliances, equipment, or systems to your electrical outlets you may unknowingly exceed the load limits for your electrical panel.
For instance, one homeowner purchased a plug and play hot tub. This type of hot tub requires a dedicated circuit. While you can simply plug this hot tub into a dedicated GFCI protected exterior outlet it must be solely used for the hot tub.
However, the homeowner did not check to make sure this exterior outlet was on a dedicated circuit so there were other connection points on this circuit. This was not a problem until the homeowner went to set up their Christmas decorations and lights and plugged them into the same circuit the hot tub was connected to.
With the Christmas lights and hot tub on the same circuit the result was that the breaker continually tripped. The client could reset the breaker but eventually it would trip again. The tripping breaker was caused by the circuit being overloaded. Too much power being drawn from appliances or devices on an electrical circuit is what causes the breakers on your panel to trip.
Dedicated Circuit
The solution to this problem was to put the hot tub on its own dedicated circuit. This prevented the breaker from continually overloading and tripping. The homeowner can now view their Christmas lighting and use their hot tub simultaneously.
To learn more about our electrical services, get in touch with our team at Blue Crest Electric. Our office can be reached through our online contact form. We are happy to answer any of your questions regarding our services or the details of your project.