3 Dangers of Sparking Outlets
Not many homeowners think twice about the danger lurking behind their electrical outlets. It's easy to take for granted the fact that we can just plug in and go about our lives without a care in the world.
But what happens when those outlets start sparking? While a little sparking is relatively harmless, it can be indicative of a much larger problem in your home's electrical system. Here are three dangers of sparking outlets that you should be aware of.
1. Fire Hazard
One of the most obvious dangers of sparking outlets is that they present a fire hazard. If there are uncontrolled sparks coming from an outlet, it's possible that it could ignite something nearby and cause a house fire. While this is unlikely to happen with one lone outlet, if you have multiple outlets sparking all over your house, the risk of fire goes up exponentially.
2. Shock Hazard
Another danger of sparking outlets is that they present a shock hazard. If you plug something in and it sparks, that means there's an electrical current running through it. And if you happen to touch that outlet while it's sparking, you're going to get an unpleasant shock. This is especially dangerous if you have small children or pets in the house who might not know any better than to touch a sparking outlet.
3. Power Outage
One final danger of sparking outlets is that they can cause a power outage. If an outlet sparks enough, it can actually overload the circuit and cause a blackout. This is especially problematic if you live in an area that gets a lot of storms or other weather-related power outages. Having your power go out once in a while is annoying enough, but having it go out every time there's a storm can be downright frustrating.