Electrical Tips & News

We know it’s not something you’d like to ponder, but if you ever find yourself in the middle of an electrical emergency, it’s critical that you keep your head on straight. Electrical emergencies can happen at any time, for many reasons, and they can seriously endanger your well-being if you’re not well prepared. At Harrison Electric, your safety is our utmost concern, and we know electrical emergencies can be both frightening and overwhelming. To help keep you and your loved ones out of harm’s way, we’ve put together some tips on how to handle the most common electrical emergencies. Take these to heart—you never know when you may face a similar situation.

Thinking about doing your own wiring to save yourself a few bucks? Think again. Do-it-yourself wiring is not only dangerous, it can actually cost you more money than you realize if you don’t do it properly. If you’re not a trained electrician, step away from the wiring, and call a professional. Sure, with the advent of DIY Youtube videos and tutorials online, you may think electrical wiring is a piece of cake; however, nothing could be further from the truth. The safety of your entire home and family is at stake when you attempt to install or repair your home’s wiring—mistakes are simply not an option. Here to explain why you should never wire your own house are the professionals at Harrison Electric.

We all know that when summer rolls around, so do the thunderstorms. In Minnesota, we have an average of 30-40 summer storms every year, which means we get a hefty dose of dangerous lightning and potentially damaging winds. To protect your home and family, it is critical that you prepare for severe weather by taking the appropriate steps.

Whether internal or external, there are several situations that can cause a power surge. However, some power surge issues are larger than others and require professional assistance. Depending on your electrical dilemma, we're here to offer simple power surge troubleshooting tips in the event you may not need to call in a professional.

Older homes are often charming due to their unique attributes, and you may have recently bought yours for this very factor. However, not everything that's unique is visible—or good. In many cases, previous homeowners will have made their own changes, fixes, and what they thought were upgrades. The problem is that not all of them will have had the skills or training needed to do it right. When this situation involves electricity, it often leaves behind fire hazards, shock hazards, and breakers that mysteriously trip.

Installing new lighting seems like a pretty easy job, but if you don't have the right experience, you can accidentally end up with injuries and a dangerous wiring job. There are many reasons that unexpected hazards can arise, so it's easy for homeowners to end up making errors that licensed electricians would know how to avoid. Here are some of the things that make it worth it to get a professional to update your lighting fixtures or add new ones:

If you’re thinking about doing a home renovation, you should also consider upgrading your home’s electrical components, as well. If you are adding a bedroom, a bathroom, or upgrading a kitchen, you are probably going to need some new outlets and perhaps lighting fixtures. You may want to add some ceiling fans as part of the project. There may be some special needs, as well, like adding the right electrical power for an appliance such as an electric clothes dryer.

It’s heartbreaking when a home floods from storm surge. The damage done is extraordinary. Most people want to re-enter a home as soon as they can to access the damage and remove whatever things that they can salvage by drying them out.

Have you recently rearranged your bedroom and found there isn’t an outlet on the wall where your TV is located? Have you noticed there isn’t enough outlet space in your bathroom each morning? Whether you’ve owned your home for 25 years or have recently purchased, you will typically find that certain elements need to be updated for practical and convenient reasons. This includes the number of electrical outlets in the home.