SEASONAL GUIDE
Monsoon Electrical Prep Checklist
Ten minutes of prep beats a 2am emergency call. Here’s the list we use at our own houses.
🔧 Free tool: Storm knocked something out? Outage Troubleshooter →
Monsoon season (mid-June through September) is when the Valley’s electrical systems get stress-tested: lightning-induced surges, wind-driven water into outdoor equipment, and outage-restore power spikes that kill electronics. Most of the damage we see every August was preventable with the checklist below.
Before the storms: the 12-point checklist
- Test every GFCI — press TEST then RESET on outlets in bathrooms, kitchen, garage, and patios. A GFCI that won’t trip is a dead safety device.
- Look up at your weatherhead — the pipe where power enters your roof. Bent mast, frayed cable, or pulling away from the house? Call before the wind finishes the job.
- Check outdoor outlet covers — every exterior outlet needs a working in-use (bubble) cover. Cracked covers let monsoon rain straight into live parts.
- Consider whole-home surge protection — a $350–$600 panel-mounted device protects every appliance at once. The AC board it saves costs more than the protector.
- Unplug the expensive stuff during storms if you don’t have surge protection — TVs, computers, garage-door boards. Surges also ride in on coax and phone lines.
- Trim trees off your service line — but never touch anything within 10 feet of the line itself; that’s a call to APS/SRP, not a Saturday project.
- Secure patio fans & lights — check that outdoor fixtures are tight and rated wet/damp. Monsoon gusts find loose hardware.
- Know your main breaker — every adult in the house should know where it is and how to shut it off in the dark.
- Charge a real flashlight — phone lights die fast in a long outage. One per bedroom is the rule.
- Pool equipment bonding — pumps and lights should be bonded and GFCI-protected; if you’ve never had it verified, this is the season.
- Generator owners: no backfeeding. Plugging a generator into a wall outlet can kill a line worker. Interlock kit or transfer switch — we install both.
- After an outage, stagger the restart — turn big loads (AC, oven, dryer) back on a few minutes apart to avoid your own restore surge.
The storm-damage signs that mean “call now”
- Burning smell anywhere after a strike or outage
- Breakers that won’t reset after the storm
- Flickering across the whole house (possible neutral damage)
- Water stains at the panel or any outlet that got wet
- A weatherhead or mast visibly moved by wind
FAQ
Common Questions
Does homeowners insurance cover lightning surge damage?
Often yes for direct lightning, less reliably for utility surges — and deductibles usually exceed the cost of the fried electronics. A whole-home surge protector is cheaper than one claim.
My power came back but half the house is dead. What happened?
You may have lost one leg of your 240V service — a utility-side or panel issue. Shut off sensitive electronics and call: running on one leg can damage appliances.
Are power strips enough surge protection?
Strip protectors help at the device but degrade with every hit and do nothing for hardwired equipment like your AC. Layer them: panel-level protection first, strips second.