June 18, 2015

Your Professional Source For 
Electrical Safety
 

 

Greetings From the Professionals.

 

As summer approaches and many of us start our home improvement projects keep in mind your homes electrical service. This is the heart of your homes entire electrical system, and the single most important piece of electrical safety equipment in your home.

 

We will be sharing with you what your electrical service is, the types of panels and just what they do for your home. Also some warning signs that your electrical service may be insufficient or unsafe. Is it time to upgrade your service?

 

At Professional Electrical your safety is our first concern. Knowing that your electrical panel is safe and sufficient for your home could prevent serious damage and protect against hazards.
20 Percent of house fires in Canada are caused by faulty electrical which can almost always be prevented if maintained and warning signs are never ignored.

What is your Electrical Service?

Your Electrical service, commonly called your electrical panel provides an entry point for electricity to your home. Once the electricity reaches your home your breaker panel serves as the distribution system that controls, maintains and distributes the electrical current to the many circuits in your home. In addition to its role in distributing the power throughout your home, your electrical service also serves as your first line of protection against the dangerously high levels of electricity that are being delivered to your home. Each circuit is protected by a circuit breaker, or fuse if you live in an older home. Whenever electrical current becomes too erratic, or reaches unsafe levels, your breakers are designed to flip to the off position, which will no longer allow current to flow to that circuit. This can help prevent overheating, melting, fire and possible shocks.

Types of Electrical Panels:
 

There are two types of electrical panels that you can come across in homes these days; circuit breaker panels and fuse boxes. Commonly found are Circuit breaker panels which consist of individual circuit breakers that "trip" when a circuit becomes overloaded. They can later be manually switched back to the "on" position. These panels also have a master switch that cuts off power to the entire building.

Fuse boxes are not so common but still found in homes built prior to 1970. Fuse boxes have fuses that act similarly to circuit breakers, but instead of tripping, they blow or short-circuit and need to be replaced. Fuse boxes are typically not capable of supporting as big of a power load as circuit breaker panels can.


 

 

What is an Electrical Service Upgrade?
 
An Electrical Upgrade helps to ensure that your electrical system is equipped to meet your energy needs and protect your family and property. Upgrading or replacing important components can help prevent electrical emergencies before they occur.


Signs that your Electrical Service is insufficient:

These day's people have something plugged into every electrical outlet in the house. People use more power than ever before that's why houses built these days have electrical service that can handle the load. Single family homes built today have minimum 100Amp electrical service, but earlier most houses just had 60Amp service. Whenever you're electrical service is too small it can no longer provide the minimum amount of electricity that your home needs day to day. Often this occurs when you have recently renovated, installed central heating or air, added a hot tub or other power hungry appliances. This could be upgraded by simply adding another sub panel, if you have sufficient main power coming into your home. If your main power is insufficient by a full service upgrade that will increase the amount of electricity that your electrical panel can actually bring into your home.

Signs that your home needs a new Electrical Panel:
Is your home electrical panel box old and outdated? Does it look corroded or melted? Do your lights dim or flicker when you are using large appliances. Have you heard crackling coming from your fuse box or often had to flip breakers?

If you answered yes to any of these questions you should have the experts at Professional Electrical  come do an assessment. These are all warning signs that could lead to major problems.
 
Here are some signs that your current panel is not keeping up with the work load, this means you may need to upgrade to a more modern and powerful panel or subpanel.
  • Defective electrical panel that fails to shut off during an overload
  • Electrical panel look corroded or melted
  • Frequently tripping breakers or blowing fuses
  • Using multiple appliances simultaneously causes your breakers to trip
  • Flickering lights or dimming light

At Professional Electrical we can install or repair Electrical Panels with a guarantee all materials used and service work done will be up to electrical code.
 

Save 10% off your homes Service Upgrade

Save now on your homes Service/Panel Upgrade .
Book your appointment July 31, 2015 and mention this Newsletter to receive a 10% discount on all panel upgrades and replacements.

Sandy Nanda                                             
780-476-1413
Remember the best way to keep your home safe is preventative maintenance. 

Always be safe around any electricity in and around your home. If you are not sure on what to do don't chance it call a professional always keep you and your family safe