What Should You Do If You Get Water in an Electric Outlet?
Scenario:
You were washing the dishes in the sink but a mishap occurred. The spoon you were washing projected water into a nearby outlet. The outlet seems to be a little wet but if you clean it up it should be fine right? What should you do?
Safe Practices
Before anything, avoid touching the outlet by all means. To be safe, turn off your breaker box. Let the outlet dry if it is minor water damage. Call an electrician to look at it and don’t use it. Follow your electrician’s instructions from there.
If the amount of water is very minor and didn’t into the circuits, you can try to let it dry although most electricians don’t recommend doing so.
Unsafe practices
Mistakes that people make are touching the outlet, using the outlet, and not getting a professional to look at it after.
Why must we be cautious?
Water is a good conductor of electricity. Electric current may still be flowing through the circuits. By touching water that touches electricity, you can become electricity’s path to the ground.
What are the consequences of unsafe practices?
By touching or using a wet outlet, you can suffer injuries like an electric shock, burns, or death. In addition to causing pain and numbness, an electric shock will burn you where the current entered and left your body. In a worst-case scenario, it can cause severe internal injuries to blood vessels, nerves, and muscle tissue. You may also experience an electric fire or a short circuit that will damage your appliances.
What are the recommended safety measures?
- Do not touch it.
- Shut off the breaker and fuse boxes for that outlet.
- Get professional help, call an electrician.
- Depending on the water damage, replace or repair your outlet.
- For your safety next time, do not get water near your outlets or any electric appliances.
Sources:
https://www.servicemasterrestore.com/servicemaster-restoration-by-emt-los-angeles-county/why-us/blog/2022/april/10-common-places-to-find-water-damage/#:~:text=A%20homeowner%20can%20dry%20an,to%20speed%20up%20the%20process.
https://www.actelectricians.com/blog/what-to-do-if-a-gfci-outlet-gets-wet#:~:text=Dry%20out%20the%20wet%20electrical%20outlet&text=For%20minor%20water%20damage%2C%20either,has%20suffered%20significant%20water%20damage.
3 Ways to Deal with Wet Outlets
https://www.briggselectrical.com.au/2022/10/11/ask-emergency-electrician-4-ways-deal-with-wet-outlets/#:~:text=Water%20and%20moisture%20in%20electrical,can%20even%20start%20electrical%20fires.
https://energized.edison.com/stories/electricity-and-water-a-dangerous-combination#:~:text=Water%20is%20an%20excellent%20conductor,through%20you%20to%20the%20ground.
For this assignment, we were asked to pick an energy issue and use our knowledge to answer some questions. To show our understanding we had to create a Sway, write a letter to the Honorable George Haymen, and write a reflection.
Letter for George Haymen Mine Contamination.docx
(I couldn’t embed the Word document)
1) What questions did you need to research in order to create your sway?
The questions I had to research were:
Why do governments continue with mining projects despite knowing the risks?
What can the province do about mine contamination to protect indigenous communities?
2) What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project?
I tried to use the resources on Gale Engage but it didn’t really work for me. However, as I read some of the articles I found ideas for my questions. Another new tool I used was a citation machine, it was helpful to me as I was not good at citing my sources. The images I used were from Flickr on the Creative Commons search which I have never used before. Most Of the time though I used Google to search for articles to answer my questions.
3) What was the process you used to investigate the topic and how did you verify and cite the information you found?
To start brainstorming ideas I went to Gale Engage and searched “Mine contamination in BC” to get some ideas. When I figured out the questions I wanted to ask I used Google to read articles from trustworthy sites to answer my questions. I thoroughly read all the information provided in the articles and websites and in my own words wrote answers. I had a Word document to document all my sources.
4) How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better?
The process went smoothly as I was able to follow all the steps in the assignment. I learned many new things along the way as well as used new tools that would help me in the future with other research projects. I do feel like I could have more questions to show my understanding of my chosen topic. It would also be better if I looked beyond Gale Engage and used other resources in the online library.
Core Competency
For this assignment, I used my critical thinking to question and investigate my topic. To create questions, I investigated my topic and its issues, and with that knowledge, I developed and designed insightful questions that need to be answered. When reading articles I had to analyze the information with my understanding and write in my own words. To write the letter I developed some points that I want to communicate and with that, I designed the letter with my partner. In the future, I will build my critical thinking skills by applying the knowledge I learned about internet fluency to my other assignments.