How to Prepare Your Electrical System for Summer Storms
Summer brings longer days and warmer weather, perfect for backyard barbecues and relaxing evenings. Unfortunately, this season also ushers in some pretty intense storms capable of unleashing high winds, heavy rain, and dangerous lightning. These weather events can wreak havoc on your home's electrical system, leading to inconvenient power outages and even significant safety hazards.
Go Electric wants you to have a safe and enjoyable summer, so we're here to help you prepare your home's electricity for whatever Mother Nature throws its way. We will walk you through understanding the risks and taking proactive steps for a secure and storm-ready home. Keep reading, and then contact us when it's time to bring in our professionals for expert assistance. We offer a full suite of electrical solutions, from surge protection to panel replacement and even emergency service to protect your loved ones and your home.
Storm-Related Electrical Issues Every Homeowner Should Know
A summer thunderstorm is a powerful force, and its effects on your home's electrical system can be surprisingly widespread. A lightning strike, for instance, can introduce a massive voltage spike into your electrical wiring, far exceeding the normal flow of electric current. This surge of energy can fry sensitive electronics and appliances in an instant.
High winds from severe weather can also cause trees and branches to fall on power lines, leading to a complete power outage for your neighborhood and potentially damaging the service drop to your house. Then there's the issue of water damage from a flood or heavy rain, which can compromise your home's wiring, creating a serious short circuit and fire hazard.
An unprepared system, especially an older one with an outdated fuse box or faulty wiring, is particularly susceptible to these dangers, increasing the risk of appliance destruction, electrical fires, and extended periods of darkness.
What You Can Do to Fortify Your Electrical System Against Summer Storms
Schedule a Professional Inspection
Before the summer weather peaks, schedule an inspection with a licensed electrician. This isn’t just about checking outlets or flipping a circuit breaker. A good inspection digs deeper into the condition of electrical wiring, voltage regulation, and your home’s grounding system. Worn wires, outdated components, or signs of corrosion inside the panel box can create problems during extreme weather. An inspection gives you a roadmap for what needs to be updated now — before rain and wind make that problem worse.
Surge Protection: A Critical Line of Defense
You likely have a power strip or two for your computer or television, and that's a good start. However, a comprehensive approach to surge protection offers much better defense against a powerful voltage spike. A whole-house surge protector is installed directly at your electrical panel and shields your entire home from external surges, like those from a lightning strike on the electrical grid. This device contains a varistor that diverts excess voltage safely to the ground. While a power strip provides some localized protection for a few devices, a whole-home system protects everything with a circuit board, including your air conditioning unit and other major appliances that are expensive to replace.
Backup Power Solutions
Storm-related outages can last a few minutes or stretch into days. When that happens, a standby generator or uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is invaluable. A UPS gives short-term power to sensitive electronics, preventing sudden shutoffs. That’s great for home offices, routers, or medical devices that need constant electricity. Standby generators, on the other hand, kick in automatically when the power goes out. These can power everything from refrigerators to sump pumps. For homes prone to longer outages, generators offer peace of mind when the grid goes down.
Waterproofing and Grounding
Water and electricity are a dangerous combination, so keeping moisture away from your electrical wiring is paramount. This involves a proactive check for any leaks in your roof or foundation that might allow water damage to occur near your electrical panel or outlets during heavy rain.
Beyond preventing water intrusion, proper grounding is another critical safety feature that is often overlooked. A robust grounding system provides a dedicated, safe path for a sudden surge of electric current, like from a lightning strike, to dissipate harmlessly into the earth instead of into your home and appliances.
Our electricians not only verify your home's main grounding connection but also install advanced grounding solutions like Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) outlets, which are engineered to constantly monitor the flow of electricity and immediately cut power if they detect a dangerous imbalance, offering vital protection against shock in moisture-prone areas.
Invest in an Electrical Panel Replacement
Older electrical panels with outdated fuses often can't handle the electrical demands of modern homes or provide adequate protection during storms. Modern circuit breaker panels include built-in safety features and can accommodate whole-house surge protection systems. Upgrading your electrical panel also increases your home's value while improving safety and reliability year-round, making it a smart home improvement investment that pays dividends beyond storm protection.
Having an Emergency Electrician On Speed Dial for 24/7 Peace of Mind
Storms can hit without warning. Late at night, during holidays, or while you’re away at work, electrical issues don’t wait for normal business hours. That’s why it helps to have a trusted emergency electrical contractor you can call anytime. A responsive team can step in when you’re facing a power outage, blown circuit breaker, or signs of water damage in your electrical system.
Go Electric has handled emergency calls during some of the worst summer weather in the region. When a thunderstorm takes out half the block or floodwater seeps into your basement wiring, there’s no time to search online for someone reliable. Save our number, and know you’ve got help ready when you need it.
Call Now & Get Help Avoiding the Electrical Pitfalls of Summer Storms
Go Electric helps homeowners take control before storms strike. If your electrical system hasn’t had a maintenance check lately, or if you’ve experienced flickering lights, strange burning smells, or unexplained breaker trips, now’s the time to act. With every inspection, we look closely at wiring, voltage patterns, fuses, grounding, and safety features that protect your home from the next surge or outage.
Need help setting up a standby generator? Want to talk about a panel upgrade? Have questions about surge protection or power strips? We’re here to walk you through the options and explain what works best for your situation.
Call Go Electric today and schedule your summer storm inspection. We’ll help you keep the lights on, even when the weather wants to shut everything down.
