What are the faults of the wiring and how to eliminate them?

Causes of Emergencies

So, the first and most basic cause of electrician malfunction is the desire to save on materials. Specially selected small cross-section of the cable( because it will cost less), cheap Chinese accessories, installation by non-professionals. All this leads to the fact that in a short time in the apartments there are fires.

The second reason is the old electrical wiring. As a rule, the replacement of the cable line in an apartment and a private house takes place every 10-15 years. During this time, most connections in the junction boxes are weakened, the insulation of the cables is destroyed, resulting in the loss of light. In addition, earlier the rate of electricity consumption was an order of magnitude smaller, so the cable cross-section was small. Now, with the advent of powerful electric stoves and boilers, the cross section of the veins should be at least 4 mm square meters, and therefore the old wiring is not capable of withstanding such current loads.

The third reason is incorrect wiring. Even if you just conduct electrical wiring, it may already be in a faulty condition. This is due to the fact that the wire connections were incorrectly made, the cable section was chosen with an error( worse, if too small), or the conductor insulation was damaged during installation. As a result - leakage current, ignition wiring, failure of household appliances, etc.

Incorrect operation. It happens that the electrical wiring is new, but due to the fact that the owners carelessly treat it, there are all kinds of electrical faults in the house or apartment. For example, pulling the plug out of the outlet entails a situation where the outlet falls out of the wall. Much worse, when there is a mechanical damage to the cable in the wall when driving a nail( if you decide to hang a picture) or drilling holes for the TV mount.

In addition to the reasons for the failure of the wiring can be attributed flooding of the apartment neighbors from above, corrosion of the wires( most often in the place of aluminum and copper), as well as the failure of household appliances. As for the latter, for example, very often the washing machine beats current when the heating element( TEN) breaks down.

What are the faults and what is the danger?

When listing the reasons, we touched a bit on the types of electrician damage, but only in general. Now we will consider in more detail possible malfunctions of electric wiring in the apartment and the house, providing them in the form of a list:

1. Insulation damage, most often mechanical. As a result, a leakage occurs and if there is no RCD in the shield, it can not be avoided. Eliminate the failure by restoring the integrity of the insulation or replacing the damaged area.
2. Damaged live conductor. Also due to mechanical impact due to inaccurate installation or repair work. Aluminum conductors are very fragile, so twist them or tighten them with a screw clamp carefully, otherwise they will break and the power will go out.
3. Insulation of the insulation of the electrical wiring as a result of overheating, which in turn arises due to improperly selected cross-sections of cores or poor contact in the twists. This fault can lead to a short circuit and a fire in the apartment. Repair the fault by completely replacing the cable with a more powerful one( if the cause is in a small section).Unreliable twisting is better to replace the connection with WAGO terminals.
4. The failure of household appliances. If electrical appliances are being shocked or if the smell of burning is heard from them, it is necessary to disconnect them immediately from the mains and start troubleshooting. Otherwise, it may cause an electric shock or fire in the apartment. About how to repair household appliances with their own hands, we tell you in the relevant section of the site.
5. Poor contact in lay-ups, as well as in the places of connection of wires to automata, lamps, sockets, etc. Due to poor contact there is heating of the veins, reflow of insulation and as a result - ignition of the electrical wiring. The fault can be rectified by periodically checking all connections and tightening the clamps.
6. Outage of outlets and switches. Each electrical product has its own service life, which, as a rule, does not exceed 10 years( more often 6).If the outlet is old, then its contacts are likely already weakened and when the plug is connected, there may be overheating, which causes a fire in the apartment. With the old switch everything is not so scary, because because of the wear and tear of the mechanism, the switch just stops working( the light does not turn on).About how to repair the light switch, we told in the relevant article. About repairing outlets you can also find a lot of information.
7. Zero wire firing in shield. A very dangerous malfunction of the wiring, because of which the electronics in the house breaks down, and there is a danger of electric shock to the person. Eliminate the breakdown can only restore contact, but to prevent the danger can be, by installing a voltage monitoring relay in the house or apartment.

We also recommend viewing a useful video on how to find a short circuit in the wiring:

These are all the most common electrical wiring faults. The last thing I'd like to talk about is how to prevent problems with the electrician.

Hazard Prevention Measures

The first and most effective way is to install special protective devices in the shield. For example, the RCD can help prevent leakage of current in the apartment in time, the circuit breaker - short circuit and overvoltage, the voltage control relay - the occurrence of two phases in the socket, as well as overvoltage.

The next thing to take care of - at least once a year( or better in six months) to do a revision of the wiring. This will allow to detect in time bad contact, cable damage or overheating of live conductors. Here you can also make an assessment of the state of the old wiring. One should be aware of when it is better to replace the entire household electricity network. Do not forget about the main signs of the problem with the electrician - cod, sparking sockets, the smell of burning. If any of these signs shows itself, you need to immediately move on to finding a breakdown.

Well, the last thing - during the repair, observe the safety precautions. Before you hang the TV on the wall, determine where the hidden wiring passes so that it does not accidentally get caught during drilling. About how to find the wire in the wall, we told in the relevant article. In addition, do not forget that you only need to connect aluminum to copper with the help of special terminal blocks, and you can perform electrical installation only when the power is completely turned off.

Here we have considered possible malfunctions of electroconducting in apartment and the private house. We hope that the article was useful and interesting for you!