Berkeys / Berkeys Blog

October 12, 2016

When Do I Need An Electrical Panel Upgrade?

The electrical panel or circuit breaker panel is a major important component of your home’s electrical system. It constantly distributes electricity throughout your home. The electrical panel also protects your home from power surges and other possible hazards. Therefore, it’s important to keep your electrical panel maintained regularly by a licensed, bonded and highly skilled electrician.

If you have old, outdated, or incorrectly wired circuit breakers, fuses, and panels in your home, you and your family could not only lose power when you need it most, but also be in danger from smoke damage and fire. As Berkeys troubleshoot and identify any electrical problems in your home by thoroughly inspecting the wiring in your home so you and your family can enjoy continuous electricity without risk.

Here’s a video on how to upgrade your electrical panel to 200 Amp.

Electrical Panel Upgrades

Electrical panel upgrades are an important part of every homeowners responsibility. Whether the electric panel is old and outdated panel or is simply just not up to electrical code, electric panels should be upgraded in either case. The licensed electrical contractors at Got Watts Electric™ have skills needed to get the job done right the first time.

A few indications that you may need a panel upgrade are flickering lights and breakers that always seem to trip. Both of these could be a safety hazard and could cause smoke or fire which could harm you or one of the members of your family.

So what is an electrical panel anyway? All the power that comes into your home originates from the utility department first, then to your electric service. From there it goes to your electrical panel or sometimes called your breaker box or breaker panel. At the electrical panel, electricity is distributed in wires (or electrical circuits) to different locations throughout your home, providing you power wherever you need it.

You may not have a panel with circuit breakers; you may have an outdated fuse panel or even worse an electrical panel that has lost its UL approval because they have been proven to cause fires. If your home is older than 20 years old, there could be a chance you have one of these panels in your home.

There a couple of manufacturers of electrical panels that went out of business as they were forced to close by UL because they made inferior and dangerous products. Unfortunately, many of these panels and breakers are still in thousands of homes.

Circuit breakers are designed to shut off quickly if there is ever an electrical problem detected, usually in just a fraction of a second. This keeps you and your family safe from electrocution, electric shock, and potential house fires. With the old-style breakers, some of them will not trip under a test load for at least one minute; some did not trip (turn off) at all.

Problems arise from electrical panels for many reasons. We will list just a few below:

• Loose connections
• Burnt connections
• Double tapped circuits
• Old Outdated Fuses
• Not UL approved

A simple electrical upgrade can upgrade your quality of life.

The right electrical upgrade can dramatically improve the value and appearance of any home or business. You’ll be amazed at what a difference the right electrical upgrade can make for your home or business. Make sure that when you select an electrical company to do the enhancement of your home and you have decided to take your enhancement to the level where you require an electrical upgrade that the technician at the company has a good working knowledge and the experience to properly guide you in this area.

When you decide to upgrade, our well-trained and certified electricians have all the experience and training needed to complete your electrical panel upgrade project from start to finish, with a minimum of fuss or disturbance.