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It seems to happen most around the holidays -- the electrical outlet begins putting on extra weight. There are nine strings of lights for the tree, electric candles, a CD player with holiday music and -- for some reason -- a George Foreman Grill. It seems like just staring at this mess of electrical cords for too long will give it just the extra boost it needs to catch fire.

Overloaded outlets do cause fires -- an estimated 5,300 annually in American households. Almost 2,000 of those occur during the holidays. Visions of burning sugarplums got us to wonder -- just how many things can you plug into an electrical outlet before it catches fire? It depends -- there are a variety of factors that can make a difference.

AC power plugs and sockets are devices for connecting electrically-operated devices to the commercial power supply.

An electric plug is a male electrical connector with contact prongs to connect mechanically and electrically to slots in the matching female socket.

Wall sockets (sometimes also known as power points,[1][2] power sockets, electric receptacles, or electrical outlets) are female electrical connectors that have slots or holes which accept and deliver current to the prongs of inserted plugs. To reduce the risk of injury or death by electric shock, some plug and socket systems incorporate various safety features. Sockets are designed to accept only matching plugs and reject all others.

To figure out how many things you can plug into an outlet before it will catch fire, first we need to get to the heart of it. At any given moment, the average American house has 120 volts of electricity flowing though it. Somewhere in your house, you'll find a wall-mounted box, containing either circuit breakers or fuses (found in older homes).

Circuit breakers and fuses act as fail safes against electrical overload. They regulate the amount of current -- the volume of electrons moving through a conductor, such as an electrical cord -- which can be drawn from a circuit. This current is expressed in amperes, or amps. Most circuit breakers and fuses regulate at either 15 or 20 amps.

 GFCI-A (ground fault circuit interrupter) outlet is a device that adds a greater level of safety by reducing the risk of electric shock. Most building codes now require that a GFCI outlet be used in wet locations such as kitchens, laundry rooms, bathrooms and outdoors.

A GFCI is much more subtle than a fuse or breaker. When you look at a normal 120-volt outlet in the United States, there are two vertical slots and then a round hole centered below them. The left slot is slightly larger than the right. The left slot is called "neutral," the right slot is called "hot" and the hole below them is called "ground." If an appliance is working properly, all electricity that the appliance uses will flow from hot to neutral. A GFCI monitors the amount of current flowing from hot to neutral. If there is any imbalance, it trips the circuit. It is able to sense a mismatch as small as 4 or 5 milliamps, and it can react as quickly as one-thirtieth of a second.

If you get involved in electrical repairs which you are not familiar and experienced with, it can be dangerous. This is because you deal with electricity and mechanical systems, so you can easily injure yourself. The information above and on the following pages is only for educational purpose and we don’t advise anyone to do your own electrical repair. For professional help call us to schedule your repair appointment.

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