3 Signs Your Home Needs More Power Points
While modern homes typically provide plenty of power points, older homes may not have as many sockets as you need. Nowadays, homeowners use a lot more appliances and gadgets than they did in the past and powering up these things at the same time can be a problem.
While you may think you're managing with the power points you have, now may be a good time to upgrade your home and add more sockets. How can you tell if you need to do this?
1. You Have to Unplug to Plug in
One of the most obvious signs that you're low on available power points is not being able to plug things in when you need to. You may not have enough points in the right places, and you might have to unplug something to plug something else in.
For example, say you're sitting watching TV at night. You have a lamp next to your seat, but you want to charge your phone. To do this, you have to unplug the lamp to free up the socket. You can't have the lamp on and the phone on charge at the same time.
2. You Use a Lot of Power Boards
You can add socket numbers to a power point by using a power board. For example, if you plug a four-socket board into a power point, then you can technically plug four things into the board at once. As long as the items you plug into the board don't exceed the power point's supply capacity, you can run four things on it.
However, it's easy to overload these boards and to stress out your electrical system. If you look around your home and realise that you're relying on power boards in lots of rooms, then this is a sign that you might want to have more power points installed.
3. Your Safety Switches Keep Tripping
If you have limited power points at home and you plug too many things into them at once, then you might trip your power circuits. So, for example, if you try to use too much power on one socket, the safety switch that protects that circuit may trip and cut the power supply.
If this happens regularly enough for you to notice it, then you should call out your electrician to check your system. If they agree that you're short on power points, they can talk to you about installing more.
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