Your Garage and its Hidden Electrical Hazards

Garages come in many shapes and sizes, both attached and detached. Not all dwellings in this region have a garage, but for those residents fortunate enough to have one, (assuming clutter leaves room for a car), an awareness of the electrical hazards present is as necessary as any other part of your house and should not be overlooked.

Recent advancements in safety codes are designed to address these all-important issues. Standing on concrete (a known electrical conductor) while making inadvertent contact with any type of voltage can have devastating consequences. And the older the home the more likely the garage needs some serious electrical updating. Therefore, familiarity with these safety requirements will help protect your residence for all those loved one who call it home.

Ground Fault Receptacle Protection

All electrical outlets in your garage are required to have an updated receptacle equipped with ground fault circuit interrupting (GFCI) protection combined with new tamper-resistantfeatures. The GFCI outlet is designed to trip at very low thresholds (3-5 mili-amps) as anti-shock protection and the tamper resistance provides safety shutters that block foreign objects from being inserted into the receptacle. These requirements include:

• General use outlets anywhere within the garage (including work benches)
• Refrigerators and freezers
• Garage door openers
• Any other outlets specifically providing power for tools, both portable and fixed, and other equipment

Because GFCI outlets have reset and trip buttons, these outlets when dedicated for a refrigerator/freezer are required to be located adjacent to but never behind the appliance. Codes require all GFCI outlets to be ‘readily accessible’ for this reason.

Even the outlets on the ceiling of your garage used for the garage door motor require GFCI protection. Often garage door installers run a ‘temporary’ extension cord for power which ends up remaining in place for many years. This is an electrical and fire hazard and needs to be addressed in a permanent way immediately.

More recent codes for new construction mandate:

• At least one dedicated, 20-amp circuit for the garage
• One general use outlet per parking space, i.e. 3 car garages would need 3 GFCI outlets associated with each space
• At least one switch controlling the lighting

Even though only one switch is required in the garage for lighting, Lippolis Electric suggests you consider adding a second switch (known as a three way) to allow on/off control of lighting for entering or exiting at the garage doors.

Finally, a motion sensor with flood lighting located outside of the garage to illuminate the driveway as a car approaches or leaves is another beneficial feature not to mention lighting has been proven to be a major deterrent to crime.

For a full and free analysis of how you can make your garage safer, call Lippolis Electric at 914 738-3550 or contact us to schedule a consultation with one of our experienced staff.