Quality Electrical Services in High River & Okotoks

The electrical panel is the brains of your electrical system, and like everything else in life, it gets worn out over time. Similar to your furnace and hot water tank, the electrical panel has a life expectancy and should be inspected on an annual basis. An annual inspection will help you catch any electrical hazards in your panel before they get too serious.

Your electrical panel and breakers should be replaced every 20 years because over time electrical breakers weaken, and they may not trip at their designed amperage. They may not trip at all. This will cause major damage to the electrical wires throughout your house, as they are designed to take only a certain amount of amperage. Faulty breakers are a major electrical hazard.

The main bus bar on your panel gets corroded over time, which results in additional resistance in your electrical system. Higher resistance means it takes more electricity to get the job done, which costs you more money.

A new panel will help keep you safe and up to date on your electrical needs. It can also allow for more circuits to be added in the future. For more information or to book your free quotation, please contact G.M. Mechanical at 403-652-1282.

GFCI stands for “Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter’’. Their job is to open up the circuit if there is a fault in it. How it works is that it sees the electrical current going out and coming back. If the current does not match in and out within milliamps, the outlet trips open. In some circuits, you will have one GFCI outlet that protects multiple outlets on that same circuit.  This is the case with most bathroom and outside plugs. There is also a GFCI breaker that will protect the entire circuit, or a dead front GFCI at the panel.

GFCI manufacturers recommend you should test your GFCI devices every month. GFCI devices are a safety device, and we need to know they will do their job when required. The outlet should trip around 6 milliamps, if it does not, it should be replaced immediately.  There are a couple of ways to test your GFCI outlets, from a basic plug-in tool to a more advanced tool that will tell us exactly what amperage it tripped at.

Having a qualified electrician test your GFCI devices on an annual basis will help you get longevity out of your devices and help catch any issues before they arrive. For more information or to book your free quotation, please contact G.M. Mechanical at 403-652-1282.

Smoke detectors are one of the biggest safety devices in your home. The sooner you know about the danger, the sooner you can react to it. Having fully functioning, properly installed detectors are crucial to an early warning system.

Over the years, both smoke/carbon monoxide (CO) detectors and straight CO detectors have been manufactured. Where it’s possible, you should have hard-wired, interconnected smoke detectors with battery backup installed. The new building code states that you need to have a smoke detector installed in every bedroom, as well as a smoke/co detector in the common area on every level of your house within five meters of any bedroom where applicable.

Smoke and CO detectors should have an expiration date on them, if they don’t, it is time to replace it. Smoke and CO detectors have a ten-year shelf life because the manufacturer cannot guarantee that your device will function properly after ten years. It is recommended that you have them tested annually by a qualified electrician. Annual inspections ensure that smoke & CO detectors are functioning properly and will give you peace of mind. Batteries should also be replaced at the time of testing.  For more information or to book your inspection, please contact G.M. Mechanical at 403-652-1282.

Aluminum wire was used from the mid-60s to–70s. It was a cheap alternative to copper wire. Aluminum is a very good conductor of electricity but within ten years, they found the aluminum had some unsafe properties to it. There are four major issues with aluminum wire: Creep, Thermal Expansion, Oxidation, and Galvanic Corrosion.

Creep happens when you put aluminum under pressure, like the terminal screw on the plug, it will slowly creep away. That is because aluminum is a soft metal. Being a soft metal, it expands when heated (caused by electricity flowing through the wire). When you put the wire under pressure and plug something in, it loses some of its connection to the plug causing a hot spot, this is called Thermal Expansion.

The aluminum wire starts to oxidize as soon as the wire is exposed to air. Oxidation is not conductive, therefore adding resistance to the wire. Higher resistance means it takes more electricity to turn on whatever device you are trying to use. Lastly, Galvanic Corrosion occurs when aluminum is in contact with a dissimilar metal, like the zinc on an outlet, and an electrical current is applied the aluminum will start to corrode.

Because of these factors, aluminum wire was deemed an unsatisfactory replacement for copper wire and was no longer manufactured.  Aluminum wiring can be remedied. For more information or to book your free quotation, please contact G.M. Mechanical at 403-652-1282.

Your home is one of the biggest investments you will make in your lifetime. Therefore, you want to take careful considerations when doing electrical work on it. Your first step should be to develop a plan/layout for what you want. Always remember, it’s easy to add stuff at the beginning of the project, and not the end.

The next step is a crucial one. Picking the right contractor. You can either find a general contractor, who has their trades they deal with, or you can handpick each individual trade group. Whichever one you chose, you want to make sure that they are fully licensed, insured, and qualified. You need to remember that if anything happens and the contractor is not insured, you can be on the hook.

Once the contractors are chosen, you will want to meet with your electrician and go over your plans. The first thing they should check for is if you will have enough room in your existing panel to handle the additional circuits you want to add. After that, they will help you fine tweak your plans to make it exactly what you want and up to the current electrical code.  Make sure your electrician is putting in good quality material/devices for you. You do not want things failing within a year or two.

The final step is to make sure you are 100% satisfied when the project is complete. For more information or to book your free quotation, please contact G.M. Mechanical at 403-652-1282.

Christmas lights can be a pain in the butt. They get all tangled up in storage and you need to run extension cords. Climbing up a ladder can be tricky at times, especially if there is any snow and ice on the ground. Then you get to take them down and do it all again next year.  We can change that.

At G.M. Mechanical, we now provide a permanent solution. We can install a year-round event lighting system. The light system is attached directly to your existing soffit. We colour match the track to match your soffit, and once they’re up, they stay up.

The lights are LED, rated to be outdoors, and can be almost any colour you want. And they don’t have to be used as just Christmas lights. With the wide range of options, you can have them flashing red and white to celebrate Canada day or have them straight green to enjoy your St. Patrick day celebration. You can do all of this from the comfort of your home. The lights are controlled by an app on your phone. In the app, you can change colours, patterns and set on and off timers. You can even use them as additional exterior lighting as they have a “pot light” effect option.

Depending on the lights you pick, standard or premium, they have a 10-20yr life expectancy with a 1-3yr warranty. For more information or to book your free quotation, please contact G.M. Mechanical at 403-652-1282.