How to Prepare for Electrical Outages in Your Ottawa Home

Significant winter weather events are just around the corner. While cold weather and snow piles are nothing new for the Ottawa area, there is still good reason to be adequately prepared for inclement weather. Nothing is worse than being stranded at your home during a snowstorm with no power and no preparation. To better prepare for weather events in the winter and all year round, Handyman Connection can provide an electrician in Ottawa that will bring you up to speed on the best ways to prepare for outages. Find out more tips that will help you feel more at ease if you experience an outage.

Know Your Area

If you have lived in Ottawa your whole life, you already know the most common weather patterns and when they are likely to occur. Use this information to schedule your routine maintenance at the same time every year. If you don’t live in the Ottawa area or are a recent transplant, be sure to talk to your neighbours to determine the severity of storms and the type of weather typical for the area. Being aware of seasonal weather will help you plan for a potential crisis.

Schedule Routine Maintenance

Depending on how often you schedule your routine maintenance, it may only be an assessment or a check-up each year. Electrical repair services are not always necessary if all systems are working correctly. However, in many areas, storms can affect the way that electricity is wired. By having a licensed electrician come and assess your home and the surrounding area, you will be able to fix any problems before you are in dire circumstances. Doing so will help prevent unforeseen outages.

Invest in a Backup Generator

Not all outages can be prevented. Sometimes snow and ice weigh on power lines or trees and cause the snapping of lines or explosions of transformers. While the actual electrical event usually doesn’t impact you one way or the other, it does affect the electricity in your home. Winter outages are often caused by ice and snow that have in some way damaged power lines.

A backup generator can be used with fuel to certain power items in your house, depending on the size and the horsepower. Other homes have a backup generator that their home automatically switches to if the larger power grid is affected. You will have to determine whether the peace of mind outweighs the cost in different types of generators.

Prepare Seasonal Crisis Kits

Many outages indeed occur during winter. Because of this, people are apt to prepare only one crisis kit a year and leave it somewhere stowed away in their basement. The kit should include blankets, candles, matches, a radio, food, and water with prolonged shelflife. You should check the shelf life of the food and water each year if this is the kind of crisis kit that you prefer.

Other people prefer a season crisis kit. Storms in warmer months can knock out power, and blankets are not often helpful when the weather is warm. A better option might be battery-operated fans and flashlights with fresh batteries. The seasonal nature of crisis kits is also a matter of preference.

Make a Practical Plan

To help prepare you and your family for an outage event, create a plan together. Explain what might happen and what you will do as a family. Easing the mind of children and older family members will help remove anxiety from the situation if it does happen. Be firm in reassuring them that you will get them and help them to safety.

For more information on how to help prepare your home for outages, contact Handyman Connection for professional electrician services in Ottawa.