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Here are some tips that may help spare you the expense of a service call, or more:

If you find a dead circuit in your home and can not find a tripped breaker in your panel, try this - first, double check your breakers. Most breakers trip to a "slightly off" position rather than fully off, so on a casual glance a tripped breaker may appear to be in the "On" position. To reset a trripped breaker, turn it all the way off, then back on. If that does not restore power, check around the house for a tripped GFCI outlet. These are the type of outlets that have little push buttons in the middle. These outlets allow for a feed-thru that provides shock protection down the rest of the circuit. So you might find for instance that a malfunctioning bathroom outlet is fed from a GFCI outlet on the front porch, or in another bathroom. Look for GFCI outlets on the exterior walls, garage, kitchen, laundry, bathrooms, and crawl space. I get occasional calls that turn out to be tripped GFCI's and usually can resolve them over the phone without charge to the customer. If all that fails to restore power, it is time to call a pro!

Tripping breaker, continues to trip after reset - faulty breaker, faulty circuit, or overloaded circuit. Common cause - portable electric space heaters. Disconnect the heater from the circuit. If it holds, the heater is too much for the circuit. If it continues to trip, look for other overloads, and if all else fails, call a pro!

Light fixtures - always be sure to not exceed the maximum bulb wattage rating listed on the fixture. The fixture is designed to dissipate a certain amount of heat without failing - the maximum watt rating pertains to the heat rating of the sockets and fixture housing. I see an occasional failed ceiling mount fixture where it is obvious the failure is due to exceeding the listed bulb rating. Rating is typically on the socket, sometimes elsewhere on the fixture.

Flickering lights when A/C or electric heat turns on - often normal, especially if the lights are controlled by a dimmer switch. All homes do this to some degree. If it is a small degree of illumination change and passes instantaneously, this is normal. If the lights dim and stay dim when the HVAC equipment turns on, or continually flicker, that needs attention from a pro.

Fuse boxes - if you have an active fusebox in your home, I recommend to have it replaced with a breaker panel. If you can not afford to do this, or just do not care to spend the money, then I recommend to replace the cartridge fuses (looks like shotgun shells) with new ones. The screw-in glass type fuses are not often troublesome, but the cartridge type fuses degrade internally over time and can be a hazard. They are typically 60 or 100 amp and you can find these at hardware stores for a few dollars - well worth doing. Make sure your new fuses match the rating of the panel - see the label on your panel. In some of these panels it is possible to install a larger fuse than the rating for the panel - never do this. Also, if you have coins or other metal disks inserted behind the screw-in glass type fuses, pull the main fuse and be sure you have shut off all power to the panel. Then carefully remove the coin or disk with a toothpick or similar non-conductive probe - wood or plastic, not metal. The coin or disk by-passes the fuse and poses a hazard if the circuit should fail. Make sure your screw-in fuses match the rating of the wire on the circuit - if you see screw fuses with the number 30 on them, you can be sure this fuse is too large to protect the wire in the event of circuit overload. Fuses should be rated 20 for number 12 gauge circuit wire, 15 for number 14 gauge circuit wire. Due to the age of the wiring in houses that are old enough to have a fuse box, I always use 15 amp fuses for the 120 volt branch circuit screw fuses.

Two switches control one fixture, but one has to be always in the up or always down position for the other switch to operate the light. For example, you have two doorways on either side of your kitchen, with a switch at each door. Switch 1 has to be in the up position at all times to allow for turning on the light with the switch 2 at the other door. If switch 1 is down, neither switch will turn on the light. This is a mis-wired three-way circuit. It is an easy mistake for even an experienced electricain to make - I have done it myself. It is not a hazard , but it can be a nuisance. I think it best to leave this repair to a qualified electrician, but - assuming the correct wiring was installed originally, and then terminated incorrectly - the good news is, this is a quick and low-cost repair. When it is complete either switch will turn on the light, as originally intended.

If you have an issue not covered here, post up, or call me.