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General Guidelines for Appliance Safety
- Electricity and water don't mix.
- Keep hair dryers and curling irons away from bathtubs, sinks and showers.
- Keep appliances away from sinks and wet hands. Wet skin increases the risk of shock.
- Unplug an appliance before cleaning; even it is off, it still can shock.
- Never put metal objects in live parts of appliances or in an outlet—it can conduct electricity and shock or kill.
- If an appliance overheats, unplug it and have it checked.
- Don't overload outlets; it creates a fire hazard. Use only one plug per outlet.
- Ground plugs, or three-prong plugs, are for your safety. The third prong connects inside the outlet with a "ground wire." In the event of a short circuit, electricity should flow through the grounding system instead of through you. Never remove the third prong.
- Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCIs) are used in bathrooms, garages, near kitchen sinks and outdoors. GFCIs monitor the flow of current to and from appliances, and if there's an imbalance, shuts off the power to prevent serious injury.
- If an appliance shuts off, find out why. Is it a frayed wire? Too many appliances on one outlet? Defective appliance? If you can't find the answer easily, don't take any chances: call an electrician.
- Extension cords are for temporary use. Keep them away from moisture, heat or metal pipes. Never put an extension cord under a rug.
- A short or an overload will blow a fuse or trip a circuit breaker. Try unplugging some of the appliances on the circuit before replacing the fuse, with the correct amperage, or flipping the breaker switch back to on.
- Note: always check your breakers and the fuse box before calling Platte-Clay when you have an outage. It may be just one too many television sets and personal computers running at the same time. Reduce the demand and flip the switch or replace the fuse with one of the correct amperage. Teach those old enough to be responsible where the breaker or fuse box is, which may be outside on a pole, so they can help find and isolate the problem.
- Turn off lights and appliances when leaving. Wasting energy is wasting money.
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