Al Carrell: When building your new house, one of the important features to watch for is where the electrical switches and outlets are going to be placed. It's at this time, during the electrical rough-in, that you want to catch any mistakes or make any changes. Otherwise, it's going to cost you big bucks after the house is finished. Walk through your new house during the electrical rough-in and make sure the switches and outlets are in places that the electrician can get to. And keep an eye out where you might want cable TV and phone jacks to be located as well. The building inspector will be looking for areas where electricity could cause problems. Be prepared to make some adjustments.
Let's take the master bedroom for example. Plan on where your bed is going to be and make sure there are outlets that are placed on either side of the bed. I recommend you go around and count the number of outlets and switches before they sheetrock. And then go back afterwards and make sure none of the areas were covered over and forgotten. It happens now and then, and the electrician will just have to cut out the area and correct it.
It's very important during the electrical finish out to have smoke detectors hard wired into each bedroom with a battery back up in case you lose electricity. And make sure that each smoke detector is interconnected, so that if one goes off, they all go off. Also consider rooms with higher ceilings. You may have a home with a vaulted ceiling and another room with an 8 foot ce iling. Make sure both rooms have smoke detectors. The room with the high ceiling might have smoke in it and not allow the 8 foot ceiling smoke detector to sound the alarm.
Now you see this electrical outlet? It's a little bit different, isn't it. The reason is because it's a ground fault circuit interrupter, G.F.C.I.. Many local electrical codes require that you have these in the kitchen, the bathroom and the garage, because those are three areas where you're likely to come in contact with electrici ty. Now you may see only one in the kitchen and one in the bathroom, but they should be connected to the same circuit, so that if you knock over a toaster or a hair dryer into some water, it's going to help prevent you from being electrocuted. It shuts off the power at the outlet. By the way, if you plug into one of these G.F.C.I. outlets and there's no power, try pushing the test button followed by the reset button and the power should come back on. Maybe you wonder why they would put a ground fault circuit interrupter in the garage. It's placed here in case you're washing your car or giving the dog a bath, you're less likely to get shocked. And since this outlet is connected to the other G.F.C.I. outlets inside the house, you may need to reset thi s one if the other outlets in the house have no power.
Episode 38 1996 - 97 Season
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