Is yours BIG enough: Service Panels

_ Electrical Panel Safety

If your electrical panel has fuses rather than circuit breakers, safety can be an issue. Even some electrical panels equipped with circuit breakers can pose safety hazards and should be upgraded.

Another reason toupgrade your electric panel is if it’s “too small,” essentially meaning that it doesn’t supply enough power. One sign of insufficient power is that fuses are frequently blowing or circuit breakers are flipping off.  Another possibility is if a contractor has told you that your home or business needs more power for a new installation such as an air conditioner.

How do fuses and circuit breakers work?

If too much power were to flow into the wires in your home, they could melt, thus possibly causing a fire to start. If you were to accidentally touch a damaged, overloaded wire, an electrical shock could happen.

To prevent more electrical flow than the wires in your home are intended for, your electrical service panel is supposed to sense the problem and stop the flow immediately. When this happens in older electrical panels, a fuse should blow. In newer electrical panels, a circuit breaker should flip off.  The purpose of both fuses and circuit breakers are to break the circuit and cut the power to your wires.  Correctly operating circuit breakers (or fuses) are crucial for your family’s safety and the safety of your home.

How do I know if my electrical panel is too small and should be upgraded?

If circuit breakers are flipping or fuses are blowing frequently, it likely means that your electrical system needs to be enlarged or upgraded.  Here are some typical situations which call for enlarging or upgrading an electrical system:

·         A move to a home with an older undersized service

·         Adding central air conditioning

·         Adding an oven, hot tub, Jacuzzi, power equipment in your garage, etc.

·         A room addition

·         A renovation or remodel

Fuse Boxes

Older electrical panels have fuses rather than circuit breakers. Back when fuse boxes used to be installed, homes needed significantly less power. Many fuse boxes were designed to handle 30-60 amps of power whereas the appliances and electronics in modern homes often necessitate 100-200 amps of power, sometimes more.

Fuse boxes can become overloaded, blowing fuses and shutting down your appliances. This is a clear inconvenience, and there’s always that enticement to buy bigger fuses so that they won’t blow so often. However, oversized fuses can allow overloading and overheating of wires.

A little recognized hazard of fuse boxes is that homeowners can inadvertently stick their fingers into the fuse opening, possibly while changing the fuse, and thus they can be electrocuted. The safest solution is to upgrade to modern circuit breakers.