When you’re about to go on a holiday, you’re thrilled and enthusiastically look forward to that date and time on which you’re about to leave – right? Well, before you leave, it’s important to be aware of electrical safety and take a few safety measures to curtail your risk of an electrical problem or fire causing harm to your home and property. Surely, you will never want to see something of this sort happen upon your arrival!
Safety measures that you should take include the following:
Ensure everything is unplugged
- Before you leave your home, perform a quick check to ensure any non-essential appliances are turned off and unplugged, particularly straightening irons, heaters and anything else that may cause a fire.
- Just to be on the safer side, if something is turned off at the wall it’s still recommended to disconnect it.
Utilise timers for lights
- For the safety of your home, certainly, you don’t want anyone to know that your home is not in use. When you use a timer switch for lights, they will come on and off for some hours during the evenings, which will pass out the feeling that somebody is there inside the home.
- Ensure the timer you use is suitable for the environment. Never use indoor timers for outdoor spaces as this can be hazardous.
- You will have to purchase an outdoor timer if you want to put outdoor lights on a timer.
Check crucial appliances are in good running condition
- In case, you want to leave your lights switched on, ensure they aren’t defective. Inspect other appliances or gadgets that you intend to leave switched on including radio and television if you intend to set them to come on along with the switch of the timer.
- Suppose, you believe an appliance is defective, get a professional to inspect it for you. Alternatively, you can consider switching it off until you come back from your holiday and attend to repair or replacement.
Ensure your smoke alarm is functional
- Before you start off for your vacation trip; if need be, replace the batteries of the smoke alarm.
- Always investigate your smoke alarms.
- When people hear a neighbour’s smoke alarm, people seldom assume it’s only a case of burnt toast. Thus, it is vital to inform one of your trusted neighbours that you’ll be away from home for some days so they know how to look at or call 000 if they hear your smoke alarm activate.
Finally, it is crucial to perform a last minute room-to-room check, which will make sure that you remain worry-free and enjoy your holiday trip peacefully. If you find anything unsafe, quickly call a local electrician from Sydney or from your nearby location to solve the problem. If you want to relax and enjoy your holiday, plan and take appropriate steps to make sure your home is electrically safe before leaving.