{"id":871,"date":"2020-03-16T11:00:16","date_gmt":"2020-03-16T15:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.covenantheatingandcooling.com\/blog\/?p=871"},"modified":"2020-03-12T16:52:52","modified_gmt":"2020-03-12T20:52:52","slug":"4-signs-need-electrical-panel-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.covenantheatingandcooling.com\/blog\/electrical\/4-signs-need-electrical-panel-upgrade\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Signs You Need an Electrical Panel Upgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-874\" src=\"https:\/\/www.covenantheatingandcooling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/4-Signs-You-Need-an-Electrical-Panel-Upgrade-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"electricians-working-on-electrical-panel\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.covenantheatingandcooling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/4-Signs-You-Need-an-Electrical-Panel-Upgrade-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.covenantheatingandcooling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/4-Signs-You-Need-an-Electrical-Panel-Upgrade.jpg 399w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/>Also called the circuit breaker panel, the electrical panel of your home serves as the central hub for your entire electrical system. It\u2019s where the incoming electricity is routed to the different circuits. The breakers are designed to shut off circuits in case of a voltage overload. If you have an aging circuit breaker panel, it\u2019s wise to ensure you aren\u2019t overdue for an upgrade, given the higher electrical demands we have all put on our homes in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>But when is it actually time to upgrade? After all, modern circuit breakers can last a really long time\u2014typically 25-40 years. We have provided 4 signs below that tell you it may be time.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What You Actually Have is a Fuse Box<\/h2>\n<p>This is pretty rare, but there still are some older homes\u2014those built prior to 1960\u2014that have fuse boxes in them rather than an electrical panel with circuit breakers. While in an electrical panel a breaker is tripped when there is excess voltage, a fuse is blown in a fuse box when this happens.<\/p>\n<p>Circuit breaker panels are not only more convenient, since you can simply reset a breaker rather than replacing a fuse, but they\u2019re also much safer! This is why modern homes are no longer outfitted with fuse boxes.<\/p>\n<h2>2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019ve Been in Your Home for Over 25 Years without an Electrical Upgrade<\/h2>\n<p>Have you been in your home for over 25 years? Other than your initial home inspection when you bought or started renting your home, has the electrical panel ever been checked? If your home still has the same breaker box than it had back then, it\u2019s almost certain that you need a new one. Safety is a concern, sure, but more than that your electrical capacity is probably suffering.<\/p>\n<p>Breaker boxes that are 2-3 decades old (or older) have the ability to handle about 60-100 amps of voltage, while newer electrical panels can handle up to 200 amps\u2014much more suited to the increasing rise in electrical demand we\u2019ve had in households, due to charging stations, computers, and the increase number of electronics and rechargeable devices.<\/p>\n<h2>3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Your Breakers are Frequently Tripping<\/h2>\n<p>The last thing you probably want to be doing is making regular visits to the electrical panel during the week to reset tripped breakers. If this is occurring with only a single circuit, it\u2019s likely a problem with whatever appliance is hooked up to it, or due to wiring issues.<\/p>\n<p>You will need electrical repairs in this case\u2014but if you notice this is happening to multiple breakers, consistently, it\u2019s more likely that it\u2019s time to upgrade your electrical panel. It\u2019s likely that the panel is simply worn down and not able to meet your capacity needs any longer.<\/p>\n<h2>4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You Have Flickering Lights<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s probably not that you have a haunting in your home. <em>Most <\/em>often, flickering lights actually indicated small power surges in the home. These occur when a powerful appliance comes on and places a high demand on the electrical system.<\/p>\n<p>In some cases, you can mitigate this by rearranging where you have certain cords plugged in to decrease demand on some circuit breakers. Typically things like your heater or central air conditioner should have its own designated circuit breaker. In most cases though, this means you need to have your electrical panel inspected, and potentially upgraded.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>For professional <a href=\"\/service-areas\/nashville-tn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">electrical repair in Nashville, TN<\/a>, contact <a href=\"\/contact\/send-message#breadcrumbs-container\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Covenant Heating and Cooling<\/a> today! <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Modern circuit breakers can last a really long time\u2014typically 25-40 years. We have provided 4 signs below that tell you it may be time to upgrade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[175,92],"class_list":["post-871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electrical","tag-electrical-repair","tag-nashville"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.covenantheatingandcooling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.covenantheatingandcooling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.covenantheatingandcooling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covenantheatingandcooling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covenantheatingandcooling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.covenantheatingandcooling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":875,"href":"https:\/\/www.covenantheatingandcooling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871\/revisions\/875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.covenantheatingandcooling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covenantheatingandcooling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.covenantheatingandcooling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}