What You Should Know About Residential Electrical Panel Upgrade

Electricity provides the much-needed energy to power just about anything in your home. From your favorite toaster to your TV and phone, there are a lot of appliances and gadgets in your home that require constant power or to be charged. So naturally, the more gadgets and appliances you have in your home, the greater the strain on your electrical system. To keep up with these high demands for electrical power, your home needs to have a fully functioning, up-to-date grid.

One of the most important components of your electrical system is the fusebox. It is a control panel that gives you access to a number of important functions on top of housing the safety measures that prevent your electrical system from going haywire. 

What Is the Electrical Panel?

What Is the Fuse Box and What’s In It?

First and foremost, it’s important to understand what the electrical panel is and what’s stored inside it. Unless you have formal education in electrical work, you should not be tinkering with your home’s electrical system. This risks damaging your electrical system and in worse cases may be a huge health risk.

However, as a homeowner, you should know the gist of how your home’s electrical system works, as well as how to maintain it so that you can at the very least fix the more superficial problems. One of the most important components any responsible homeowner should know and understand is the electrical panel. This console is located on the exterior of your home. It houses special switches called fuses that control the connection between the main electrical grid and the one in your home, as well as the specific areas in your home.

For example, if an electrician is performing repairs in the kitchen or you know that there is faulty wiring in that room, you can simply disable the fuse that connects the kitchen to your home’s main electrical system. This way, you can disable the electricity in certain rooms without having it affect the entire system. Fuse boxes are also used as safety measures so that if one of the fuses blow, it won't damage the other connections.

It is very important for homeowners to know where their electrical or breaker panel is and how to operate its most basic functions, such as resetting the fuse box. In case you’re unsure about how to use the fuse box, consult your electrician or someone who is familiar with electrical systems to explain the intricacies of operating it.

What Are the Fuse Box Upgrades?

Why A Professional Should Be Performing the Upgrades

The most important aspect to note about fuse box upgrades is that you cannot perform them yourself unless you have formal education as an electrician and a license to work. There are a lot of nuances to upgrading an electrical panel, including having the right permits to operate. You also need to know the local standards of electrical systems as your grid needs to be up to date.

Knowing how to install a subpanel, how to upgrade it, what permits you need, and the local standards are all within the specialization of professional electricians. Even if you know how to operate a fuse box, you are still not qualified to make any kinds of modifications without a license. So, you need to ensure that you have  qualified professionals handling the upgrades.

The upgrades vary as everyone’s fuse box is a little different, from the switches, the wiring in the subpanel, their layout, and plenty of other intricacies that only electricians are aware of. Smaller details like the material the fuses are made of, the state of the emergency switch, and how secure the wiring is can get very complicated. But the gist of what the upgrades include are modifications that bring your electrical up to date with local standards. 

Why You Would Need to Upgrade the Breaker Box

What Are Some of the Reasons Fuse Boxes Are Upgraded?

There are a number of reasons why homeowners need to upgrade circuit breakers. Keep in mind that each home’s electrical system is very different, depending on how the grid is divided, how much electricity is being used, when the last upgrades were installed, if there have been any malfunctions in the electrical system and the general unpredictable nature of electricity. 

Outdated Parts

What Parts of the Electrical Panel Get Worn Out with Time?

One of the most common reasons why homeowners need to upgrade their electrical panels is because of outdated parts. These can be switches, the fuses themselves, the entire panel casing, outlets, wires that have gone through tons of wear and tear, and so on. Certain outdated parts are very easy to spot as they may be visibly worn out.

But for many other parts in your electrical system, and more specifically the fuse box, it is sometimes hard to find which parts are up to date and which ones are not. This can be solved by hiring an electrician or home inspector to come in and take a look at your electrical panel. You will get an informed report on the state of your fuse box, mentioning what parts are out of date and which ones should be urgently replaced to avoid any serious complications. The outdated parts may require an upgrade that’s as simple as changing a fuse in the breaker box. In more severe cases, however, extensive replacements may be required.

Malfunctions

How to Tell If Your Fuse Box Is Malfunctioning

Malfunctions in the electrical system are common occurrences. These can be accidents that were caused by members of the household, as well as problems that are completely out of your control. A fuse blows a few times; this isn’t really a big issue as adding a breaker to a panel prevents extensive damage. So, don’t worry if you’ve had a fuse blow a few times.

However, blow a fuse one too many times over the years and it may start to malfunction. Wiring is also a very complicated problem. You may have wires that became worn out over time, got damaged by the weather, or were even gnawed on by pests. In any case, a malfunctioning fuse box is quite dangerous as it may lead to a far more serious problem. This is why it’s so important to replace faulty parts as soon as possible to avoid future problems with your electrical grid.

Even with an untrained eye, you can spot malfunctioning parts by simply seeing how worn out they are. For example, if a tripped fuse box switch won’t stay in one position, this means that the spring inside may be damaged. Another easy way to be on the lookout for faulty parts is for weird sounds. If your electrical panel is giving off a strong buzzing sound or strange cracks in more severe cases, then something is likely malfunctioning.

Upgrading to Renewable

Why Switching to Renewable Requires an Up-to-Date Fuse Box

As renewable energy becomes more and more accessible, tons of homeowners are switching to renewable sources. In order to successfully transition to green energy, the fuse box requires an upgrade. This is mostly done because most of the technology used in renewable energy systems is as modern as you can get. So in order to correspond with the standards set by these eco-friendly energy sources, your electrical panel must be upgraded as well.

You may even need to install an electrical panel that is completely different from what you had before, as the green energy source may require a more extensive upgrade. Luckily, installing a new circuit breaker is a cakewalk for many professionals who specialize in such tasks. So, before having the solar panels installed, make sure you understand the extent to which you will be upgrading the electrical service of your home.