Extend the life of your electrical system – Part 1
Starting on the exterior of the home and the Main Outdoor Service Disconnect
Some homes have an outdoor service disconnect, some homes do not. In the future, all homes will require outdoor emergency service disconnects.
In January 2021, the majority of America adopted the 2020 NEC (National Electrical Code). With this adoption, outdoor emergency disconnects are now required on all new construction homes, homes undergoing renovation, and homes having their service replaced. If your home has an outdoor service disconnect it is a great idea to do some simple preventative maintenance. The maintenance is as simple as turning the disconnect off and on a few times.
Cycling Power on Outdoor Service Disconnects
The best time to perform this maintenance is when there is the least amount of activity happening within your home. It is best to have the Air/ or heating system thermostats adjusted where they are not running during the process. We also suggest making sure no major appliances are running prior to cycling the disconnect.
After all major appliances are confirmed to be not running, it is now time to perform the simple disconnect maintenance.
Start by locating your outdoor service disconnect. See examples of two outdoor service disconnects in the pictures below.
Determine how the disconnect is to be turned off. Some disconnects have an exterior handle, some disconnects have a breaker type handle behind the front cover.
After determining where to turn the disconnect off, find where the disconnect reads OFF. When you are ready, move which ever type handle to the off position in one firm movement. Repeat movement to the ON position. We suggest doing this cycle at least twice. ON to OFF, OFF to ON, ON to OFF and finally OFF to ON.
You are now ready to put all of your heating or air back to normal and resume normal use of your home.
With doing this simple maintenance you have prevented any extra corrosion from building up that is normally found in many electrical systems. You have helped ensure that your disconnect will work if you need to de energize your home in the future.
Phoenix Electrical is a licensed electrical contractor located in NW Georgia. For more information, please see our list of services. Call or text us at 706-607-6332 for more information.
