It was just another ordinary day, me and Sebastian working on images in the study, while my wife and the nanny was tending to baby girl Claire, when the electrical shorted.
Felt pissed that it’s probably due to the ongoing construction work at my block (lift renovation and all). However, anger soon turned to shock, when we realised the power going out was due to the power point for my Air Conditioning burning up!!
We’d only noticed it when the smell of burning rubber came gushing out of our master bedroom.
We were terribly lucky we were home when the incident happened and that the circuit breaker worked it’s magic in time, if not the whole apartment might just have gone up in flames.
Good news is we are all safe and sound and are that bit smarter (thanks to the tips given to us from our friendly electrician) after the episode and hopefully will be able to prevent such an incident from happening again.
I am gonna leave some tips here also for all you peeps, least it happens to anyone of you.
– check all power points frequently and make sure they are not excessively hot (in fact most should be cool). If they are warm/hot, you should get your electrician to take a look at it. It could be signs of problems with the connection and that it is drawing more power than it requires. Fixing the issue early, would prevent a fire and would also likely push your monthly electrical bills down.
– When you leave your apartment for an extended period of time (overseas trip etc), switch off the mains if possible, but if not, always try to switch off whatever connections you can afford to.
– Not sure whether it’s true but my electrician also raised a point to change your electrical water heater every 8-10 years, even if everything is working fine and dandy. This is to prevent any unforeseen electrical leakage leading to a rude shock while enjoying your relaxing bath!
