Articles / Major Remodel - Upgrade Your Electrical Panel!
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If you are contemplating a major remodel, the addition of a room or storage area, or a new kitchen you might need to consider an electrical panel upgrade to match this project. Don't get caught up in a bad situation at the end of the job like so many others have done by not structurally allowing for an electrical improvement before hand.

Before, typical houses were often furnished with 60 amp electrical capacity at the very least that's linked to a screw-in main panel endowed with 2 to 6 blocks of fuse. As old school as it may seem, fuse blocks giving power to only some receptacle outlets, lighting lines, and a few other minor appliance circuits were the most popular set-ups before.

Just look at the fact, that we did not have all of the innovative appliances in the past. Lighting features at homes were typically very simple and the most popular home appliance you'd see is one and old-fashioned Television set.

Air-conditioning, that was an extreme luxury and not made into all houses in the past nor did we have computers, hair dryers, curling irons, well you get the picture and yes.... it was an extremely simple way of life.

Consequently, when technology unveiled modern appliances and gizmos, it is not a surprising fact that houses with old-fashioned electrical system won't be capable to accommodate the power demands of these contemporary electronic devices.

As a matter of fact, houses nowadays are almost always furnished with 30 - 40 15/20 screw-in fuses as compared to the 4-6 15/20 amp in the past.

Some twenty years before, a typical home began to utilize a 100 ampere electrical service, most of which were making use of the technological advances in electrical wiring equipments. Fuses were no longer acceptable and the marvel and usefulness of electrical circuit breakers gradually imposed.

At this point the average home is provided with up to a 200 amp electrical service with a distribution panel handling up to a total of 20 to 30 15/20 amp general lightning and receptacle circuits serving the entire electrical demands of merely one home not including the small electric powered devices.

North American's are electricity hungry. A few air conditioning devices these days can even use more electrical power than an entire home could have used up years ago. A kitchen, in a new home, will usually be designed with many receptacles capable of providing more than 60 amps of readily available electrical power just to the counter tops and connected appliances of a bigger home, but simply adding receptacles does not improve the available power if they are looped from other receptacles. As a way to obtain higher electrical power, the circuit must be directly connected to the distributing electrical panel.

Fire hazards commonly originate from distribution panels that are aged like those screw-in fuses that were common before. The contact between the base of the fuse and the buss bar oxidizes or charcoals from poor contact. There's a requirement to create heat for electricity to continue on flowing in. In many places, Insurance Carriers will not renew home owner insurance policies if the home is equipped with an electrical distribution panel of a screw-in style fuse box or brand name with a non U.L. approved listing.

If your current electrical service to your home is below 100 amps, and/or if it has a distribution panel that utilizes screw in style fuses, you should think of replacing it as a top priority in any major renovation undertaking.