Common Electrical Problems in Tampa Bay Homes

How to Use These Pages

Every page above follows the same order because it is the order that keeps people safe. First, what the symptom usually means in a Tampa Bay home, which is often different from what a national article says, because our housing stock, our humidity, our lightning and our hurricane seasons create their own patterns. Second, the handful of checks that are genuinely safe for a homeowner: resetting a GFCI, looking for a tripped breaker, unplugging a space heater, checking whether the neighbors have power. Third, the hard stop: the signs that mean you should not open anything else and should call a licensed electrician. Fourth, how we actually fix it, borrowed from the matching service page so you know what a proper repair involves and roughly what it costs.

The Three Causes Behind Most Tampa Bay Electrical Problems

Age. A very large share of the homes we serve were built between 1955 and 1985, and a surprising number still run on their original panels and wiring. Federal Pacific, Zinsco, Challenger and Sylvania panels have breakers that may not trip under a fault; aluminum branch wiring from the late 1960s and early 1970s loosens at every connection; cloth-insulated wiring crumbles. When a symptom shows up in one of these homes, the symptom is usually not the problem, it is the first visible sign of it. That is why the first question we ask on the phone is the age of the house and the brand on the panel.

Lightning and surges. Tampa Bay sees more lightning than anywhere else in North America. A strike does not have to hit the house to damage it: a nearby strike couples into the utility lines and into the ground, and the spike finds the weakest electronic component in the home, a GFCI, an AFCI breaker, a garage door opener board, an air handler control. A run of "random" failures after a storm is almost never random. A panel-mounted surge protector is the fix, and it is one of the least expensive jobs we do.

Water and salt. Humidity, roof leaks, flooding, irrigation overspray on outdoor outlets, and salt air within a few miles of the Gulf or the bay corrode connections, meter cans, disconnects and dock wiring. Corrosion raises resistance, resistance makes heat, and heat is what melts insulation and starts fires. Warm outlets, buzzing breakers and intermittent power on coastal homes are very often corrosion problems.

What Is Safe to Do Yourself, and What Is Not

Safe: resetting breakers and GFCI outlets, unplugging appliances to isolate an overloaded circuit, replacing a light bulb, checking whether a neighbor has power, switching the main breaker off in an emergency, and taking a photo of the panel label to text us. Not safe without a license and training: opening a panel cover, replacing a breaker, replacing an outlet or switch in a home with aluminum wiring, working on anything that has been wet, working on a dock or pool circuit, and connecting a generator by any method other than a proper inlet and transfer switch. Florida also requires a permit and inspection for most of that work, which is one more reason it belongs to a licensed contractor. If a page above tells you to stop and call, it is not caution for its own sake.

What Happens When You Call

Describe the symptom, the age of the home and the panel brand if you know it. Often we can tell you over the phone whether it is an emergency, whether there is a safe reset to try, and what the likely repair and cost range look like. If a visit is needed, we schedule it, show up in the window, diagnose with a meter rather than a guess, and give you a firm price before any work starts. Troubleshooting visits carry a modest diagnostic fee that is credited to the repair. Family owned, Florida license EC13013571, 24-hour service across Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Manatee counties: (813) 897-2665.