Childproof Your Electrical Outlets

Having your home be a safe place for your kids is the most
important thing you can do as a homeowner and a parent. That’s why people
childproof their homes. If you haven’t done this before, it is a good idea to
do it as soon as possible. This article
focuses on childproofing electrical outlets.

If you are not an electrician, you shouldn’t be dealing with
electrical installations either. Find a licensed electrician to do all your
electrical works. Experts at Patriot Electric & Generator Service explain
why it is important in this article http://patriotelectric.biz/why-choose-licensed-electrician-orange-county-ny/.

Even though the electrician should be doing all the
electrical works, you still need to know what needs to be done to keep your
home safe for kids.

Tamper-Proof Outlets

The best place to start is
your outlets. If your home is a bit older, chances are that it has regular
outlets installed. Newer homes are usually already equipped with these. It is
easy to check if you have these. Look at an outlet. If the two slits where the
plug goes are just holes, your outlet is not tamper-proof, and therefore not
safe for your kids.

Tamperproof outlets have plastic covers which prevent
anything other than electrical appliances to be pushed into them. That way,
your kid playing around cannot accidentally electrocute themselves.

Sliding Outlets

These are handy because they are fairly easy to use, and
they don’t require much effort to install either. Essentially, they look like
normal outlets, but the part which lets you plug your appliances in needs to be
slid to one side in order to reach the electrical grid. The problem with these
is that kids can easily figure out how they
work, so they are only effective for a short time.

Outlet Caps

If there are outlets which you don’t use as often, you can
close them up with outlet caps. These small plastic caps fit perfectly into the
holes of regular outlets and cannot be taken out without some effort or skill,
neither of which your child can muster at a young age. You could get them for
all of your outlets, but it is a drag to constantly put them in and out of the
outlets when you use them. And you could even forget to replace them after
you’re done using the outlet.

Occupied Outlets

Just because an outlet is occupied, it doesn’t mean it is
safe for kids. Some chords are surprisingly easy to unplug, even for a child. So, you may want to protect those
as well. There are easy-to-mount outlet covers which are easy enough for you to
easily put them on or take them off, but sturdy enough to keep your kids from
messing with them.

Power Strips

With more and more electrical devices in our home, a lot of
us use power strips. However, these devices are just a bunch of outlets in one
place, therefore unsafe for kids. Fortunately, just like with outlets, you can
use outlet caps or specialized power strip covers. These covers slide on top of
the power strip and need to be moved in order to be able to use the outlet.

New parents have a lot of things to learn and start seeing
everything just a bit differently. Even a plain electrical outlet is a
potential hazard for a young child and needs to be taken seriously.

You can contact Patriot Electric & Generator Service at
400 NY-17M suite #4, Monroe, NY 10950, USA
845-576-6700