A Lesson in Electricity

When you home school, you can always stop a lesson and jump to something else, then return to your lesson.  Such was the case yesterday.

Our master bath light switch was popping, and the light would go out and we would have to wiggle the switch for it to come back on (yes, we have been putting up with this and are firefighters and safety trainers...bad, I know).

Yesterday I changed it out.  I had the girls help me.

First we turned of the electric to the entire house.  Many think that is over kill, but just in the event something from another circuit is crossed with what I am working on, I power it ALL off.  Then, I had one of the girls hold the flash light for me, as we were in darkness, even though it was a bright sunny day.

This is what we found.

See the blackened charred areas??  That should not be there.  The plastic was melted as well.

We were very close to having had a house fire.

I went through the house and changed another couple things out as well.  I think we are now good to go, safety wise.

Changing out an existing outlet or switch is very simple to do, you just need screwdrivers ALWAYS turn your power off first.  I know, some people brag they can do it with the power on, but, they are stupid (no other way to word it--sorry).  Power goes off-rule #1 always.

So, after our wiring lesson, we resumed to our regular SOS computer lessons.