You may or may not be aware that your home is equipped with an electrical panel and know that this is what will control the various system of the electrical circuits in your home. There are homes with panels that are more than 20 years old, and in this case, homes could be experiencing some shortage of power that will signal you to upgrade your electrical service.
You will know that your home has an electrical panel because you would sometimes flip its breaker switches when you have electrical issues. If you know what your panel can do and the basics of your electrical circuitry inside your home, you will have savings in terms of time and money if you would happen to have a loss of an appliance or in the total place of your home. By having some electrical knowhow, you will be able to tell when to hire a professional electrician or do the job yourself.
In short, the distribution of power to the various circuits in a house is made through the panel. A single breaker switch that is flipped will turn off the power of an area without affecting other areas of the house. When you open your electrical panel, an group of on/off switches can be seen, and it is advisable that you label them inside the door or next to the switch with identification on which circuit it controls.
You will know that there is a fuse that has blown off when there is a stoppage of electrical functions like the lights have turned off, or your hair blower won’t function. Whenever there is a blown fuse or tripped breaker, the circuits would shut down so that safety is observed during power overload or short circuit. The shutting down by the circuit will help avoid overheating which could lead to sparks and electrical fires. There are times that the solution of the problem can be done by plug configuration to evenly distribute the electricity supply, and by flipping the circuit breaker switch or by replacing the fuse. But in cases when overloading is not the problem, contacting an electrician is the better action so the professional will be the one to investigate for possible more serious electrical issues.
Know that several older residences have electrical panels with designs that cannot handle the modern equipment of today. And so if your home belongs to the old generation with less than 200 amps of available electricity, with today’s modern appliances and gadgets, you are to upgrade with a new electrical service panel.
Be warned that an outdated, overstressed electrical panel is both an inconvenience and dangerous so do not wait to bring in an electrician to tell you to upgrade your electrical panel.
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