The days leading up to Halloween can be a really fun time of the year. Between the costumes and the home decorations, many people put considerable creativity and effort into ensuring that their Halloween display is the scariest of them all! But an area where the necessary attention may not be given during Halloween planning is around electrical safety. With a number of people moving swiftly to and from residential homes trick-or-treating, often through dark hours, the safety of all involved should be carefully considered. 

By Corey Hannahs

It’s been a number of years for me since I have had children young enough to traverse the streets with on Halloween night and steal candy from in the days that followed. I will admit that a diabetic with an addiction to Reese’s Peanut Butter cups is not a good thing, and judge me if you must, but I would be willing to bet that you may have some shortcomings when it comes to sugar as well! As I reflect on the Halloween nights spent as a child myself and then the years that I spent trick-or-treating with my own children, the one thing that stands out to me is the extravagant lengths that homeowners will go to in order to create the most haunted house in the neighborhood.

Today’s Halloween decorations often include many electrical needs in order to keep them inflated, flashing, animated, and the like. Many fog machines take it a step further in requiring both electricity and water to operate. All things considered, the front yard probably looks like a spiderweb of electrical cords providing trip hazards that would not be well-received “tricks.” If the weather decides to add rain to the festivities, now enters an opportunity for electric shock, certainly not the kind of shocking experience that some may seek on Halloween night.

Being better prepared and safely incorporating electricity into Halloween decorations helps to make sure that no accidents take place. Here are a few considerations to help improve electrical safety when decorating for Halloween.

Utilize GFCI Protection

Ground-fault circuit-interrupter (GFCI) protection is a critical component to safety when both water and electricity coincide. These devices have the ability to sense an imbalance in an electrical current path and turn off the power before an electric shock has time to occur.

All electrically powered outdoor decorations and equipment should utilize GFCI protection. This can be done by plugging into an outdoor GFCI receptacle on a home, if available, or through the use of an inline GFCI cord set. Regardless of the type of GFCI protection being utilized for Halloween decorations, they should be tested before each use to ensure their functionality.

Use Extension Cords Properly

Like Halloween goodie bags at the end of the night, extension cords come in many shapes, sizes, and load ratings. A good first step is making sure that the extension cord being used is rated for outdoor use. Many of the big box stores where homeowners often purchase these products carry both indoor- and outdoor-rated extension cords. Because they are often cheaper, it may be enticing to quickly grab an indoor cord and be on your way, but it is important to only utilize outdoor cords because they are rated for the weather conditions they may be exposed to.

It is also important to check any extension cords being used to see if they are frayed along the length of them, exposing the internal electrical wiring, or if they have any broken cord ends. Missing grounding blades on male cord ends can be common, especially with older, regularly used cords, and can therefore create an additional electrical shock risk. Damaged extension cords should always be taken out of service and never patched with a “band-aid” of electrical tape. Extension cords should also be routed in a way that they do not provide tripping hazards to those trick-or-treaters that come onto your property.

Only Use Rated and Listed Products

People use a wide range of outdoor decorations when it comes to Halloween. Driving through my neighborhood in early October, I noticed that one of my neighbors already had inflatable decorations out in their yard. That means that those items will be exposed to whatever temperamental fall weather comes for nearly a month, before they are even utilized on Halloween night.

Just like we discussed with extension cords, it is important to ensure that decorations being used outdoors are rated for that application. Also, as with extension cords, the power cords connected to the decorations should regularly be checked for frays and broken cord ends.

Finally, homeowners should ensure that they are buying products that are listed by qualified testing laboratories, such as UL or Intertek, among others. This means that the product has been put through a level of testing that, when used based upon their listing, will be safer for consumers to utilize.

The scariest part about Halloween should be the costumes that are worn. Being mindful of electrical safety while preparing your magnificently spooky displays will help to ensure just that. Let’s leave the most shocking part of Halloween being your kids reaction to all of their Reese’s peanut butter cups suddenly disappearing. Happy Halloween!