What Does Your Home's Electrical Panel Do, and When Do You Need an Electrical Panel Upgrade?Posted by Weinreich Delgado on April 24th, 2021 Your house is equipped with an electric service panel that controls the many electrical circuits in the system. If your panel is more than two decades old, or if you are experiencing insufficient power throughout your own home, it might be time for any service upgrade. You realize that your home has a power panel. You may have even flipped the breaker switches maybe once or twice in an effort to fix a issue. But you don't know what this panel does? Learning the basics about your home's electrical circuitry could help you save time and cash when you are up against a loss of profits of chance to an individual appliance or in general. Having some electrical knowledge may also inform you when you ought to place the job inside the hands of a specialist electrician. Electrical Panel 101 In a nutshell, the panel is exactly what distributes capacity to the different circuits in your property. That's why flipping a single breaker switch might switch off capacity to the guest bedroom or kitchen only, without affecting other rooms. When you open the entranceway for a electrical panel, you will see a multitude of On/Off switches; each must be labeled either next to the switch or inside the entranceway, showing which circuit it controls. Note that a fuse box will have screw-in fuses instead of breaker switches, though the function is similar. Blowing a Fuse/Tripping a Circuit Breaker You're blow-drying your hair, and all of an unexpected, the lights head out. Or you turn on the coffee brewer only to lose power in the entire kitchen. What happened? electrician brisbane northside 've probably either blown a fuse or tripped a breaker, dependant on what sort of electrical panel you've got. The circuits are designed to turn off safely whenever they experience an energy overload or short circuit. If you plug too many appliances into one outlet, you could be drawing more power compared to the circuit usually takes. The circuit will shut down in order to prevent overheating, be a catalyst for sparks and electrical fires. Most of the time, you can solve the challenge by altering your plug configuration to more evenly distribute the electricity, and then likely to flip the circuit breaker switch or replace the fuse. However, if overloading the circuit wasn't the problem, contact an electrician locally to look into whether you've got a short circuit or other much more serious electrical issue. Do I Need a Panel Upgrade? The electrical panels in many older homes are merely not made to handle modern electricity needs. The electricians of 2 decades ago could have never imagined an individual family using a television, cable box, DVR, computer game console, toaster, microwave, blender, radio, hair dryer, lamp, and much more all concurrently! Even electrical appliances that are not fired up but remain plugged in can siphon electricity in the grid. If visit the site experiencing blown fuses or tripped breakers on a regular basis, you might be due for an electric panel upgrade. Similarly, in case your lights are flickering or simply aren't fully bright, you need a panel upgrade. In general, if your property is much more than twenty years old, or if the service panel has less than 200 amps of electricity available, it is time to get a new electrical service panel. If you're experiencing these issues, don't wait to herald a professional electrician to have an electric panel upgrade. An outdated, overstressed electrical panel it not just inconvenient--it can be dangerous. If you've rigged your own home with power strips and extension cords because you've don't have enough outlets, you're putting your household plus your belongings susceptible to an electric surge or electrical fire. Bring in a residential electrician today to get your own home electrical panel up-to-date capable to suit your needs.Like it? Share it! More by this author |