In this episode, John Maher interviews Joe Malone, a master electrician with Cape Cod Heat Pumps and Electrical, about common issues and upgrades for electrical outlets and switches. Joe discusses when to replace worn-out outlets, GFCI installation for added safety near water, and the latest smart home options for switches and outlets. He explains troubleshooting methods for malfunctioning outlets, highlights evolving electrical codes, and provides practical advice on choosing the best outlet and switch options for your home. For more information, visit Cape Cod Heat Pumps and Electrical.
John Maher: Hi. I am John Maher, and I’m here today with Joe Malone, Master Electrician with Cape Cod Heat Pumps and Electrical, an HVAC and electrical contractor in Marstons Mills Massachusetts on Cape Cod focused on detailed quality and professionalism. Today our topic is electrical outlets and switches. Welcome, Joe.
Joe Malone: Hi, John. How are you?
When Do You Need to Replace or Install New Electrical Outlets and Switches?
Maher: I’m doing well, thanks. So, Joe, what are some of the typical jobs that you see that require replacing or installing electrical outlets and switches?
Malone: So generally, it’s usually when someone has a problem is when we get a call, we don’t get a call when everyone’s being happy and everything’s going great. We always see people usually on some of their worst days.
Maher: Right.
Malone: Generally, end up replacing outlets when there’s a problem, something went pop in the middle of the night, an outlets not working or cords won’t stay plugged into them. It’s usually from just being used for too much. A lot of vacuums being plugged in. Your toaster’s been plugged in too many times, your kids are plugging in their iPads a hundred times a day. Just those types of things.
Do Electrical Outlets Wear Out Over Time?
Maher: Do outlets just wear out over time as you plug things in and out of them, they tend to wear out?
Malone: Yeah, exactly. Inside the outlet, when you plug a plug in, there’s pretty much just two sides that make a connection where your plug goes in and every time you use it just ends up opening up and spreading out over time. It’s just like everything. It wears out after so many uses.
Electrical Codes and Regulations
Maher: And how do you ensure that outlet and switch installation complies with electrical codes to make sure that we obviously want to be safe, we want to make sure that there’s not going to be any fires or things like that, that’s why there’s codes. What do you have to do to comply with that?
Malone: It’s just we go through a lot of schooling, and we have a few hundred-page-long code book that we go through every few years, even after we’ve had our licenses for 20 something years, we still have to go through code reviews and updates, and there’s just a lot of continuing ed we do.
Manufacturers or suppliers reach out to us with new technologies all the time, and it comes from a lot of many, many years of just doing it the right way and getting lots of jobs inspected and all sorts of fun.
What is a GFCI Outlet and Where Do They Go?
Maher: Right. What is a GFCI outlet and where do you typically install those in a home?
Malone: So, a GFCI is a ground fault outlet. It has almost like a little microchip computer chip inside of it that senses whenever there is current going to ground. And that’s a problem because GFCI is usually installed whenever there’s water nearby.
If it’s a bathroom, a kitchen, outside or your basement, anywhere there’s water around, you don’t want have any kind of electrical current going to ground because then you become electrified yourself. And these GFCI outlets can be a nuisance because they trip a lot, but they are meant to protect the person and keep you from having any electrical current that you don’t want to have going through you.
How is a GFCI Different From a Circuit Breaker?
Maher: That’s a little bit different than a circuit breaker that you would have on your electrical panel. That trips when you have an overload of current going through the outlet or the switch, or whatever, and this is a little bit different, this is when it senses that there’s a connection there to some water where it’s going to ground in a way that it’s not supposed to.
Malone: Correct. Generally speaking, a circuit breaker will trip when you have too much stuff plugged into it or you are using too many things at the same time. Again, vacuums, toasters, you have a hundred different things being plugged in all the time where the GFCI it senses when there’s something going where it doesn’t belong. Ground is supposed to be an emergency path in case of everything failing in the electrical system.
So, a GFCI trips a lot quicker than a circuit breaker ever can to keep you protected right there, right at the point of the problem, as opposed to waiting for extra current to be drawn. These GFCIs will trip at the micro current level. Instead of 15 amps, they’ll be at 1 millionth of an amp or 1000th of an amp.
What are GFCI’s Meant to Protect?
Maher: Mm-hmm. And this is again, to protect people from those situations, especially in a bathroom where you might have a hairdryer that accidentally falls into the bathtub or something like that, it’s to shut off that electricity so you don’t get electrocuted.
Malone: Exactly. If you have something that’s touching like a cold water pipe, you want it to trip out as quick as it can. You don’t want to have a kid’s electric toothbrush or a razor shaver, or your toaster have a cord get wet and then you have a lot bigger problems on your hands.
What are Different Types of Outlets?
Maher: Right. What are some different types of outlets, and where would you use those in a home?
Malone: So, these days there’s seems like there’s a million new options that just keep coming out every few years. One of the very popular ones is the new combination USB charging outlets. So instead of having an adapter that plugs into the wall that you have to constantly try to track down, you can just plug your iPhone or Android charging cord directly into the plug in the wall, and super convenient, super easy.
And most of them now even are fast enough charging. You can charge your laptop directly from the wall instead of having to carry around a long adapter so you can just plug it right in and everything’s great.
Maher: And you’re still able to use the regular outlets at the same time as well?
Malone: Absolutely.
Maher: Good.
Malone: Yep. They make combination plugs. It’s all on the same opening in the wall and you can plug one or two standard plugs in like a lamp or a bedside lamp, and then plug your phone in to charge at night type of stuff. They make them now, they’re all sorts of crazy. They have built in nightlights, so it’s like half of an outlet and a nightlight. Those are great to put in somewhere like your hallway or near a staircase, or I have them in both of my kids bedrooms, so my kids can actually, they have a regular plug to plug something into, a couple of USB plugs and then nightlight all in opening on the wall, so I don’t have to cut extra holes in the house and put extra wires where they don’t really want them.
Maher: Any other styles of plugs that you typically see?
Malone: Yeah. There’s a lot more that’s more decoration at that point as opposed to the single tube circle openings over each other, snowman type. There’s more of a decorator style, which is a smooth face, just more of an upscale, better-looking outlet. Geez, there’s so many of them out there with the different types of charging and plugs, and styles and colors.
Are Two Pronged Outlets Still Available?
Maher: Yep. Do they still install at all those old style plugs that just had the two plugs in it as opposed to a three prong outlet? Or is it all the three prong with the grounding on it?
Malone: So, you can buy them. They are highly frowned upon, and as a licensed electrician, I won’t install them.
Maher: Okay.
Malone: The ground prong is there for a reason. It’s meant to help, again, protect people and the appliances that they’re using. The old two plug style is in much, much older homes where there was no ground wire present because back when they wired the house, they just didn’t have it, just like all technology evolves over time.
Now if we go to replace one, we’re supposed to replace it with a certain type of arc fault, ground fault plug where necessary, where it creates a ground in and of itself through the same computer chip microchip, and it’s again, meant to bring you up to date without having to completely rewire your home.
So, it’s a $30 or $40 outlet that you can now plug a standard vacuum cord, lamp cord, anything into, as opposed to having to buy the adapters and screw things together. And that just creates more potential for a hazard of fire and heat.
What Types of Wall Switches Are There?
Maher: What about switches on the other side of things? What are some different types of switches that you typically install?
Malone: So nowadays, most folks like to have the option of throwing a dimmer switch on, which I completely am on board with is all the brand-new LED lighting that’s out there is just incredibly bright. It’s just, it’s meant to be as bright as you can possibly make it and take people out of the 1950s and ’60s dark homes and bring you into the light.
But for most people, they like to change the lighting settings as the tasks are needed. So, you dim the lights down for a nighttime wind down type of mood, but first thing in the morning when you’re getting ready and rushing around with the kids to get out of the house, you crank the lights up to fall and, “Let’s go everybody to attention.”
But there’s still standard switches. You flip them on, flip them off, have a great day. There’s a lot of, again, new technology coming out where it’s integrated timer switches, digital timers where you now can set them to turn your lights on and off at given points during the day.
So, you can always come home to the outside lights are on or your garage lights are on, or, “Hey, I’m going to bed, turn off these lights by 10 o’clock at night so I don’t burn electricity all night long and forget that I left the post lane on in the driveway.” Those are all built into the switches instead of having to have a separate crank up timer.
And there’s also timer switches for bathroom exhaust fans where my own kids will do me the favor of leaving an exhaust fan on for four hours at a time, so now you have the timer switches where you just push a button and it’s 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and it will count itself down and shut itself off, so everybody is happy.
Are These All Digital Switches?
Maher: So, that’s all digital now instead of having to have, like you said, one of those crank timers that you’d rotate around-
Malone: Yes. Those-
Maher: … and click?
Malone: And don’t get me wrong, those are still available, and they serve their purpose, and they worked well for a lot of people for years. Just anything mechanical tends to wear out over time, so those need to get replaced, but now they make them in full digital with push buttons, and you can even step it up a level, and there’s programmable digital switches where you can control them from an app on your phone, and you leave the house, you forget that there’s 12 lights on, you can just click a button on an app on your phone and you just shut all your lights off instead of, again, burning electricity, which is super expensive again these days at times. And you can just turn all the lights off and know that everything’s good.
Are People Using Smart Homes?
Maher: Do you find that a lot of people now are going toward that smart home idea where they’re able to control all their lights from an app?
Malone: Yeah. It’s building blocks of getting yourself to being a true smart home without having to invest 50,000 or a hundred thousand dollars. You can spend a few hundred dollars and build the building blocks. You start out with one or two switches, and then you can turn all 40 switches in your house and have them on a program, and talk to Alexa on all the Google devices and tell it to turn them on and turn them off. And it’s just technology is evolving very quickly now where it’s making life a lot easier.
Are There Switches with Different Aesthetics?
Maher: Right. Do you still have different types of switches from an aesthetic point of view? I remember when I was growing up in the ’70s and the ’80s, I think in the ’80s it was in vogue to have those big wide flat on and off switches instead of the little small ones. Do they still use those or have different styles or the way they look?
Malone: Oh, absolutely. You can still purchase the old-fashioned push button where it looks like the old ivory mother-of-pearl in laid push on, push off.
Maher: Oh, yeah. Those are neat. So, if you have a historical home or something like that, you could get those and fit right in.
Malone: Those are very popular here in some of the older homes or more of the current restoration farmhouse style homes. You can purchase those. But they do the larger rectangular up, down, up, down, on, off switch. Some people like that. It’s easier for kids to use those.
Maher: Sure.
Malone: But that can also be the opposite where they’re turning your lights on and off all the time on you.
Maher: Yeah. Maybe you don’t want to make it so easy for them, right?
Malone: Right. Exactly. That can become nuisance at times. But there’s different styles and aesthetics and colors, and there’s a full spectrum. Some of these companies will color match different major paint brands to your switch covers and blend into the wall like you’ve never seen them before.
Troubleshooting Wall Switches
Maher: Okay, interesting. What about troubleshooting? You mentioned that often you’re replacing outlets and switches when there’s a problem, once, like you said, something goes pop in the night and something gets burnt out. How do you come to a house and troubleshoot and figure out what the problems are and maybe repair or replace outlets and switches?
Malone: Yeah. I’ve been doing residential and commercial service work for 25 plus years now, and you just get it down to a very simple pattern of peeling the onions as we like to say it. You start with one thing, and you just expand from there, and a lot of the information is through the homeowners.
They may think it’s not anything worthwhile to mention but mentioning the fact that they had a guest over who plugged in a vacuum or a guest that came over and plugged in a cell phone, or the kid turned on a light switch the day after it was raining. And those type of things can give us information like maybe there’s water getting it into a plug that’s outside, and it just needs to be replaced and resealed with silicone, so it’s watertight and waterproof.
Or there was light bulbs outside that popped and now one of them shorted out and that would cause a circuit breaker to trip. Or even as simple as you’ve had the same plugs and light switches in your house for the last 25 years, it might be time to think about getting them changed out because they’re mechanical connections and every time you turn a light on and turn a light off, there’s something touching and moving, and creating and just closing contacts together and those will wear out over time.
Maher: All right. Well, that’s all of really great information, Joe. Thanks again for speaking with me today.
Malone: Thanks for having me, John.
Information About Cape Cod Heat Pumps
Maher: And for more information, you can visit the Cape Cod Heat Pumps website at ccheatpumps.com or call 508-833-HVAC. That’s 508-833-4822.
