Storm Season in Texas

We have officially reached spring storm season in Texas and while the severe weather can be hit or miss, we seem to see the same electrical problems arise regardless.

Problem: Outdoor/garage outlets stop working

Outdoor outlets can stop working when we have any rain or days with high humidity but when we have blowing rain during a big storm we start to see a lot of calls about outdoor and/or garage outlets that aren’t working. Typically, this is something we try to troubleshoot over the phone just to make sure you really need to spend the money to have an electrician come out.

Solution: Reset the GFCI when everything is dry

When our outdoor outlets get wet, the GFCI (ground-fault circuit interrupter, the electrical term for water mixed with electricity zapper stopper) steps in and trips to make sure the threat of electrocution is neutralized. A GFCI tripping can be indicative of a few problems but more often than not when it trips during storm season it points to a potentially wet outlet. Give the outdoor outlets a few days to dry out and try resetting the GFCI. If waiting a few days fixes the problem then you’ll want to go around to all the outdoor outlets and add another layer of caulk around the outlet to make sure there aren’t any holes where water can seep in. Also, check all in use covers for cracks and replace them if needed.

Problem: Flickering lights all over the house/power goes off and comes back on by itself

Flickering lights in one room would be a different problem, potentially caused by a bad light fixture, a bad light bulb, or a bad connection. When we see power turning off and turning back on or lights that flicker in many areas of the home then we likely have a poor connection somewhere. During the spring when the weather turns from cold to warm, sometimes in the span of a day, we often see connections that aren’t as tight as they should be. When we couple the expansion and contraction of wires with the high winds of storm season it leads to connection problems that we often see visually as flickering lights across the home.

Solution: Contact your power provider

Give your power provider a call, if you’re in Austin this is likely Austin Energy or Pedernales Electric (PEC), if you’re in Pflugerville, Round Rock, or Hutto this is likely Oncor. While the main breaker and meter enclosure and wires inside are the homeowners responsibility, the connections made between the home’s power and the power provider’s power are the power provider’s responsibility. They’ll check their connections and at least help us narrow down where to look for the bad connection. Calling the power provider out first also helps you determine if the money spent on a electrician is needed.

Surge Protection

Surges are largely unavoidable, whether the problem originates from inside the home, an electrical substation, or from a lightning strike. However, we can prepare for them as best as we can by putting in surge protectors to help redirect the surge away from electronics. The easiest place to start is by plugging in our electronics into surge protection strips, they’re fairly low cost and easy to install. The next form of surge protection is a whole home surge protector. This type of surge protection acts as a dam for electrical current, just as a dam holds back flood water. The whole home surge protector is going to redirect as much surge power to the home’s grounding system so it doesn’t take a path into the home and through our electronics.