Disney Electrician’s Holiday Lighting Safety Advice
posted by admin in Home InspectionYour family could be in danger because of the way you may have plugged in your Christmas tree, but a man in charge of keeping thousands of people safe from millions of lights said protecting your family should be simple.
You probably will not see them, but hidden throughout Walt Disney World’s Spectacle of Dancing Lights are 600 devices called ground fault circuit interrupters, or GFCIs.
The lights on one Christmas tree alone are powered by 42 GFCIs.
Electrician Dan Summers is the man in charge of making the streets at Disney glow, and these units, he says, are keeping guests safe.
“If they were to come in contact with a bare wire, it would trip the power and turn the lights out immediately,” Summers explained.
Since most households do not have 80,000 lights on their Christmas tree, then they do not need 42 GFCIs. Instead, electricians said all you need to light your tree is one of them to protect your family from fire and electrocution.
“If y ou had an infant put one of the bulbs in his mouth, that could cause a short circuit that would cause this to trip in 1/40th of a second,” Summers said. “They might get a little bit of a shock, but it wouldn’t be enough to kill them.”
Summers said GFCIs are smarter than surge protectors, because with those, you are not protecting people.
“All you’re doing here is protecting the equipment,” Summers said about surge protectors.
Even worse, he said, is using a multiple outlet adapter with outlets on all sides to power your tree.
“It’ll start arching there, could cause a fire, very easily,” Summers warned.
For outdoor lighting, Summers said the plugs hang down for a reason.
“The end that you plug in the power is facing down. That’s to keep water from settling inside the connector and shorting out,” Summers said.
A few things to remember before you flip the switch — no matter how big.
Summers said you can find the GFCIs in most hardware stores.
Tags: anc, Electricians, lt, shock, StoresRelated posts
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