Do You Need to Upgrade Your Electrical Panel?

For those who aren’t trained, electrical panels can be something of a mystery. It may seem that the only job of these panels is to deliver electricity, so if you need more electricity to support your household, you should just be able to add more circuits, right? Wrong. While part of the job of your electrical panel is to deliver electricity to your home, it does more than this. Your electrical panel acts as a safety device, channeling the turbulent electrical flow into circuits so that your home receives the amount of electricity the panel dictates. If you don’t have enough electricity to support your home – the normal amperage for homes these days is 200 – then it’s time to call a trained electrician for help in upgrading your panel.

Signs It’s Time to Upgrade

Here are some classic signs that you should strongly consider upgrading your home’s electrical panel:

• Lights dim and brown out when you turn on appliances – do you have lights that flicker, dim or brown out when you turn on a major appliance like a dishwasher or microwave? This indicates that the draw on your system is too heavy and that you would benefit from adding more amps to your electrical box.
• Multiple circuit breakers that trip frequently – are you constantly flipping circuit breakers back on in your electrical panel? When multiple breakers trip with regularity, this is often an indication that you don’t have enough power coming into your home.
• You still have fuses – fuses are an outdated method of managing the electricity in your home, and they can also be dangerous. In fact, many home insurance companies will not insure homes that still have fuse boxes instead of an electrical panel. Fuses simply cannot provide the power most homes need, so it is in your best interest to upgrade your fuse box to a standard electrical panel as soon as possible.

Upgrading your electrical box in Denver, CO, is a job that should only be handled by a licensed, trained electrician. Call the electrical experts at Bell Plumbing and Heating today for all your electrical panel upgrade needs!