By: Anthony Maturo
Editors Note: It's almost summer, which means Mothers Day, School Graduation's, Fathers Day, and the 4th of July are either here or right around the corner. Plus, Hurricane Season is around the corner as well. This blog was originally posted earlier in the year, but it's contents are more important than ever. Give it a read, and give us a call. Tis the season.
You have a big family event coming up. At this point, it really doesn’t matter whether it’s a huge family reunion set in South Florida, or if it’s a destination wedding. You’re responsible for setting up activities and entertainment. You’ve secured entertainment for the kids in your family. You gave in to your son’s suggestion and hired a rock band – that needs electrical power for their mics and speakers. Clearly, you’re going to need a reliable source of backup power, because your mother suggested buying a bagful of power strips and extension cords!
Reasons to Choose a Home Generator
You are blessed with consistently good South Florida weather. Because hurricane season ends at the end of November, as long as you schedule your celebration at the right time of the year, you won’t have to worry about anything more than heat and humidity.
Because you’re planning so many outdoors events to make the most of Florida’s sunny weather, you’re thinking of sources of backup power to have energy running to all the electrical equipment you’ll be using. Don’t forget – your community or neighborhood can experience a power outage unexpectedly. It’s during these times that a home standby generator can help rescue your event from an unnecessary disaster.
Drawbacks to Extension Cords and Power Strips
Your mother might believe that her suggestion of setting up a series of extension cords and power strips is a good one. These items can be put to limited use because the National Electric Code forbids their use in certain circumstances.
Extension Cords can’t be used under the following circumstances:
Where they are vulnerable to damage
Extended through windows or doorways
Placed in wall, ceiling or floor holes
To substitute for fixed wiring
For equipment that demands more than 15 amps
Can’t be connected in a daisy-chain or piggy-back fashion to other cords or power strips.
The use of power strips is also limited:
All surge suppressors are power strips.
Not every power strip has surge suppression capability.
You are probably beginning to realize that you need a more-reliable source of emergency power. You want everyone to have fun at your family event – nobody needs to be needlessly hurt. In the event of an unexpected power outage, you want to be sure that nothing electrical stops functioning, either inside or outside your party venue.
The Safety Risks
All surge protectors are power strips. Not every power strip is a surge protector. Should you have all those power strips and extension cords daisy-chained together, a power surge could short out the equipment being used. Not only that, the surge and resulting short out could result in a fire. If you’re relying on a power strip and extension cord to keep crock pots and electric frying pans powered, you need to know that power strips are not supposed to be used with anything that has a heating element.
If the price of a new commercial standby generator is beyond your family’s reach, a pre-owned generator or one available on sale could help you solve that problem.
Having a Safe Family Event
Now that your event is nearing, you need to have a reliable source of emergency power. The right-sized generator can fill your needs for this family event and, when everyone has had their fun and gone home, you have a generator available for the next hurricane and blackout.
Contact us today to learn more!
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