Keeping your commercial property safe means thinking about many details, including the electricity. Electrical fires are a huge risk in businesses that are operating a lot of devices and equipment. According to Fire Trace, there are about 33,740 commercial electrical fires per year in the U.S. Here are a few tips on how to avoid this risk.

Be Aware of Electrical Distribution

Even if you aren't a professional electrician yourself, as a business owner you have a responsibility to be knowledgeable about the electrical distribution on your property. All the electricity on your property enters through an electrical distribution system. The size and complexity of these systems vary, so you need to be aware of what they can handle to ensure you're not putting unnecessary strain on them. The amount of energy available to the property can be raised or lowered, but this needs to be done thoughtfully and in collaboration with professional electrical contractors who can advise you on how to proceed. If there is too much demand on a system and it isn’t wired or programmed to handle it, the wiring and circuits can start to heat up and this can result in a fire risk.

Don't Overload Outlets

Another common cause of fires in businesses is that you have too many high-energy devices plugged into one outlet. The safe rule of thumb is that you’d only put one high-energy device into an outlet. This is tricky because there are always two plugins available. You need to make sure that high-energy devices, however, are solo in an outlet. It's also important to make sure employees are following this rule as well.

Don't Overload Power Strips

Another danger is to daisy chain or overload power strips. Plugging more than one power strip into another power strip is not the way these devices were intended to be used. This causes a distinct fire hazard because the original outlet isn't wired to pull this much energy through it. If your commercial property doesn't have adequate outlets for devices, you need to connect with local electrical contractors to have more outlets installed.

These are just a few of the fire risks that can be present on commercial property. If you're in need of professional electrical contractors to help with your energy needs, please contact our team at Jeske Electric Inc today.