What To Do if You Find A Warm Outlet

In honor of National Electrical Safety Month, we wanted to highlight the concerns of warm outlets. Did you know that over 51,000 homes annually experience electrical fires? Plugged In Electrical wants to help you avoid danger. Have you ever unplugged your phone charger and noticed the outlet was warm? Pay attention, warm outlets can indicate a potential fire hazard. 

Causes of Warm Outlets

• Overloaded Outlet–A power strip can be a convenient solution to help you plug in everything you need in one location. The caveat with power strips is that when you plug in many things, sometimes more energy is pulled from your outlet than it can safely handle. Pulling too much energy can cause your outlet to overheat. If your outlet feels warm, unplug a few things and allow it to safely cool down. 

• Broken Components–If parts of a switch or plug are noticeably damaged, you should contact our team right away. Outlets with compromised infrastructure can become a fire hazard.

• Faulty or Damaged Wiring–When an outlet has loose wiring or damaged terminals, the outlet will begin to release heat. The entire outlet needs to be replaced right away to avoid a safety concern.
• Overloaded Circuits–If your circuits have been wired improperly, you could have excessive electrical current flowing to an outlet or switch. Rewiring circuits is definitely not a good DIY project since you have to make sure that the switches and outlets are not on the same circuit. 

Warm vs. Hot

If you find a warm outlet, unplug things and see if the problem resolves. An outlet can be warm  from having something plugged in for extended periods of time. Warm outlets should be taken seriously and evaluated thoroughly. If your outlets are hot to the touch, call us right away because this can be a serious electrical concern. While you are waiting on us, unplug anything plugged into your hot outlet and turn off the power to the outlet from your breaker box. An electrical fire is much less likely to occur if you have cut the power off and unplugged everything. 

Being proactive can bring peace of mind. Our team at Plugged In Electrical can perform a safety inspection on your home’s electrical components to ensure that your outlets and circuits are functioning properly and safely. Schedule your visit today!