Frequently Asked Questions
Safety comes first. These answers to common questions are designed to help you be prepared for an emergency, and keep your home and neighborhood safe.
When the holidays are near and it’s time to decorate, help your family enjoy the season safely.
- If you find frayed cords or wires, broken fuses, or cracked light bulbs, throw away the strand and get a new one
- Never use nails or staples to attach a string of lights or a cord
- Choose extension cords that are certified by a nationally recognized testing laboratory, such as UL, CSA, or ETA
- Don’t overload: limit yourself to three strands of lights per outlet
- Unplug decorative lights when you leave home or go to bed
After the holidays, there’s a safer way to remove and store lights and decorations.
- Unplug decorations, lights and extension cords before removing them
- Never allow children to tug on electrical cords – there’s a risk of tearing the insulation and exposing wires
- Outdoors, keep ladders, long-handled tools, and dangling light strands far away from overhead power lines, service drops, and pole-to-house connections
- Follow manufacturers’ and your city’s directions for safely disposing of worn or broken lights and decorations
Never touch or even approach a downed power line -- it can cause serious injury or even death. Whether overhead or on the ground, consider all power lines energized and dangerous. If you see a downed power line, call 911.
Learn more ways to stay safe.
Your first step is to call 911 and inform the operator that it’s an electrical emergency. Don’t touch anything or anybody that’s come in contact with energized equipment, and keep others away too. If the person is free from the electricity source and not touching it at all, administer first aid including CPR if needed. Be sure medical help is sought immediately, because electrical burns may not be visible. Learn more about safety around electricity.
Most interference is caused by household equipment or a neighbor's appliances and tests in most areas have shown little or no interference from Southern California Edison company lines. If your appliances are causing the RTVI, they may be affecting your neighbors' radios and televisions as well.
RTVI may be caused by common household appliances including heating pads, a faulty door bell transformer, tropical fish tank heaters and pumps, baby wipe warmers, touch lamps, dimmer switches, and home lighting photocell switches.
It's easy to locate the source of an RTVI problem. Here's how:
Go to your main fuse box or circuit breaker panel with a battery-operated AM radio tuned between stations. Listen for interference on the radio. (Be sure to bring a flashlight if the box or panel is located in a dark or enclosed area.)
When you hear the interference that has been bothering you, interrupt the power to your home by turning off the MAIN circuit breaker. (Do not remove fuses and leave their holders exposed.)
TIP: For instructions on safely turning your circuit breaker off and on.
If you no longer hear the interference on your radio, the source of the interference is in your home. If you continue to hear the interference, the source of the noise could be in a neighboring home or building. Restore the main breaker and all other sub-breakers to "on." For further assistance locating the source of the interference, please call SCE at 1-800-655-4555.
If the interference stopped when you shut off the main circuit breaker, try to locate the source of the interference in your home. With your AM radio tuned between stations, turn the MAIN circuit breaker back on. After the interference returns, turn the circuit breakers off one at a time until the noise stops. Now turn on all the breakers except the one that stopped the noise.
Because the source of the interference is on the circuit you turned off, check your house for the outlet, doorbell, light, clock, or other appliance or piece of electrical equipment without power.
Congratulations! Once you've located and removed the interfering device, your radio and television reception will return to normal.