Unplug electronics like your computer, TV, and DVD player. This could help prevent a sudden surge of electricity from damaging them when power is restored.

It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the location of the fuse box or circuit breaker in or outside of your home. You should also learn how to reset a tripped circuit or change a blown fuse. Practice manually opening electric garage doors and gates so you can do it safely and easily during an outage. Find out where you can buy blocks of ice (most grocery stores carry them) to keep food in refrigerators and freezers cold during an extended outage.

Make sure you have emergency supplies in a place you can easily find them. Stock your outage kit with flashlights and batteries, a battery-operated radio, a manual can opener and canned food. Find more information about  Power Outages that can help you prepare for and understand these events.

If you've performed the RTVI, checked above, and are still experiencing interference problems, call us at 1-800-655-4555 for help locating the source.

Here is a simple test to check your home for RTVI:

1. Go to your main circuit breaker box.
2. Listen to the interference on a battery-operated radio.
3. Turn the main breaker off.

If you follow this procedure and the noise goes away, then the RTVI problem is coming from your home.
 

If there is still interference, follow these additional steps:

1. Turn the circuit break main on.
2. Wait for the interference to start again.
3. Follow this same procedure for each of the sub-breakers, one at a time.

Once you pinpoint which circuit the device causing the interference is plugged into, perform these final steps to resolve the problem:

1. Turn all the breaks to "on," except the one that stopped the noise.
2. Find out what electrical equipment is connected to that circuit by checking the doorbell, fish tanks, heating pads, electric blankets, dimmer switches, sonic pest control devices, and other appliances.

If you follow all of these steps and still have an RTVI problem, the cause may be in your neighbor's home.

You may be suffering "Radio and Television Interferences" (RTVI), which may also be affecting your neighbors' radios and televisions.

There are potential sources of interference all over your house.

Heating pads, door bell transformers, photocell light switches, fish tanks and pumps, baby wipe warmers, touch lamps, dimmer switches, and home lighting photocell switches are just a few of the many possible sources of RTVI. For more information, visit RTVI Request.

If you're entitled to a deposit refund, we will mail it to you along with your closing bill within 30 days of closing your account. Deposits are automatically applied to the account 10 days after the last service address is turned off and closed.

If you need help at any time during your service request, please call us at 1-800-655- 4555.

You can avoid paying a deposit through a number of ways:

We need to handle requests for Catalina Island residents differently since we provide electric, gas, and water service for the island - because of this, we're unable to take online service requests from Catalina Island residents. However, you can call us at 1-800-367-8851, Monday - Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and we can help you submit your service request.