The electrical irregularities are a common phenomenon in the electrical setup of most households. To ease the fixing work of the concerned electrical aberration, you can diagnose the affected electrical segment of your home.

There are various ways of determining the source of an electrical fault. Though it may be difficult for a novice to locate the exact source of the fault at once but one can determine the factors responsible for such a fault.

Hence, you can just calculate the values of electric current, voltage or resistance to generate the rough idea about the nature of the electrical fault. When it comes to the calculation of the electrical resistance then various electric devices or instruments may serve the required purpose.

Before you go ahead, make sure that the power of the concerned appliance or electric circuit is switched off.

The digital multi-meter is often preferred over the other calculating electrical instruments. The versatility and ease of use of a digital multi-meter allows it to be accepted easily by the electricians and homeowners alike. Apart from the electrical resistance, a multi-meter can determine the voltage or current of an electric circuit as well. To generate readings on the multi-meter indicator, connect its probe to the corresponding terminals of an electric circuit.

The socket or device to be tested should be powered off prior to the testing. Otherwise, it may lead to a possible malfunctioning of the device or the testing instrument. In case of resistors, the pattern or color of the rings could itself determine the resistance limit of the component. However, the regular electrical sockets or receptacles need to be tested by specialized measuring instruments such as digital multi-meters or voltage testers.

Alter the setting of the multi-meter to read resistance units (ohms) from the concerned electrical component. Select the ‘omega’ sign to select the setting as electrical resistance. Furthermore, set the range for the observation of the electrical resistance complementing the range your instrument is rated at. Once the multi-meter is set, touch one probe of the multi-meter to one of the terminals of the concerned socket and second probe to the other terminal.

If the final reading shows a value out of the set range then a short or faulty circuit is detected. If however the reading falls somewhere between the set scale then a normal state of the circuit is concluded.