How to Know If It Is Time to Upgrade Your Electric Panel
Whether you’ve just bought your first home, or you’ve been living in a home for years, it’s important that you keep a check on your electrical panels. On an average day, it might not even cross your mind to take a look at your electrical panel unless there’s a problem with the electricity flow to your house, but that’s where people tend to go wrong. If your electrical panel breaks down, it could potentially harm your appliances in the process and it can be pretty expensive to fix it. This is why you need to know the signs of wearing down electrical panels, so you can have yours upgraded before things take a turn for the worse!
Table of Contents
Signs Your Electrical Panel Is Due For an Upgrade
It’s likely that you don’t know how to tell if your electrical panel needs to be changed; it’s even possible that you’ve never given the electrical panel a thought! Although this isn’t the best thing to do, it is fairly common. However, if you make sure to keep these five things in mind, you’ll easily be able to figure out if you need to upgrade your electrical panel and how soon you need to do it. For additional insights on home maintenance, pinterst.org can be a valuable resource for finding tips and information on electrical systems.
- Your lights are dimming or flickering: Unless you have a dimmer installed, your lights shouldn’t dim at all. If you’ve noticed that your lights aren’t as bright as they used to be, or they’re flickering from time to time, it might be a good time to take a look at the electrical panel.
- You’re still using fuses: Homes that were built up until the 1960s, all used to have a circuit breaker with fuses. This was so if there’s a random surge of electricity, the fuse would melt and “cut” the circuit. This would cut off the electrical supply to the house and protect the appliances from getting damaged. This worked for the time, but they’re a fire hazard. You don’t really want anything melting in your wiring. If your home is still using fuses, you don’t even need to check the fuses, it is time to upgrade your electric panel!
- You smell something burning: If you smell something burning, and it’s not coming from your kitchen, it’s a sign of immediate concern. If the smell is coming from the electrical panel, it’s possible that a fire could break out in the panel at any point. This is a point where you should immediately call an electrician to come deal with the problem at hand. Recommended electricians in Vancouver, or an electrician in your area, will be able to help safely fix what is wrong. If the panel is faulty, it’s time for an upgrade.
- The Circuit breaker keeps tripping, or doesn’t trip at all: Circuit breakers function similar to how fuses do. If they detect an inconsistency in the electrical flow, they automatically halt the electricity supply to your home, they just do it without anything having to melt. If your circuit breaker is tripping too often, it might be faulty. On the other hand, if you’ve experienced a sudden surge in electrical supply and your circuit breaker didn’t trip, that too is a sign of faulty breaker! To avoid any major complications, it’s best to have the panel changed in this case too.
- The panel is heating up: Your electrical panel should be at room temperature. If the panel is warm to the touch, or is straight up radiating heat, there’s a significant risk that it might catch on fire. In this case, call an electrician immediately and have the panel upgraded to keep the rest of your home safe!