Emergency Electrician in Lebanon, Maine

Call right away if an outlet or switch in your Lebanon home is hot, sparking or scorched, if you smell burning plastic with no obvious source, if the panel is buzzing or warm, or if the main breaker trips again the moment it is reset. Any of those can mean heat building in a connection hidden behind the drywall. In a panel that has been in service since the 1980s or 1990s, a worn breaker or a corroded connection is a common cause. In older village houses, brittle cloth insulation on original wiring is another. A house where only half the lights work, or where lights brighten and dim as appliances run, may have a failing neutral, which can send damaging voltage to electronics and appliances.

Storms cause the other big category of calls. A falling limb can strip the mast, weatherhead and meter socket off the wall, or, at a mobile home, flatten the pole or pedestal holding the meter. CMP's ownership stops at the weatherhead and the meter itself. Everything past that point, mast, socket, pedestal gear and the wiring beyond, is the owner's, and the owner's electrician has to repair it before the utility will reconnect. When a wire is lying on the ground, clear everyone out of the area, dial 911, and call CMP's outage number, 800-696-1000. Treat every downed line as live.

Goodnow Electric takes emergency calls around the clock. The first job on arrival is safety: shutting off power to whatever is damaged, checking with a meter that nothing is live where it should be dead, and bringing back the circuits that came through intact where that is safe. When a storm has wrecked a mast or meter socket, the repair is lined up with Central Maine Power so the reconnect happens without delay. After the immediate danger is dealt with, a written estimate follows for the lasting repair, whether that is a replaced service, a new panel or rewiring of the circuit that failed. Keep the path to your panel clear and know where the main breaker is, so it can be shut off quickly if a problem starts.