The electrical service panel is a vital part of your home, helping to ensure your safety, comfort, and convenience. As the main point of distribution for all electricity in your home, the panel and the electrical circuit breakers that it houses are critical components in your home’s electrical system. When it comes to replacing or upgrading your panel and electrical circuit breakers, it’s equally important that you work with an electrical team that has high degrees of experience and provides top quality service and material. Our team is accredited and has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. Homeowners in Golden, CO can trust Save Home Heat Company to check all the boxes. Call us today!
Getting to Know Your Electrical Service Panel
Although it goes by a lot of different names, such as circuit breaker box, breaker box, electrical panel, or service panel, it all refers to the same piece of equipment. To find your home’s electrical service panel, look for a grey, rectangular metal box with a large, hinged front access door, typically installed on a wall in the basement, garage, or even in a closet. Sometimes, it’s in a weatherproof box on an outside wall of your home.
Inside the panel are usually two vertical rows of circuit breakers (or replaceable fuses, in very old panels), including both 120 volt and 240 volt circuit breakers. You can tell them apart by how many slots they occupy; 120 volt breakers normally take up one slot, and 240 volt breakers take up two. Each circuit breaker distributes electricity to a specific area (or to a specific appliance or system) in your home. Larger electrical draw appliances such as a central AC system or a hot tub, often use 240 volt breakers and have their own dedicated breaker switch. If you look on the inside of the electrical panel’s door, you should find a list of breakers, filled in by an electrician, identifying what parts of your home, or appliances, each breaker corresponds to.
Service Panel Replacement Considerations for Golden Homes
Most homeowners aren’t particularly familiar with NEC, our guiding national and electrical installation code, and many are only vaguely familiar with their home’s service panel. Our team at Save Home Heat Company can be trusted to help guide you as consider options for upgrading your home’s electrical service, and determine if replacing your existing electrical panel makes sense to consider, or if another option makes more sense. Just because a panel is older in age, or your home’s electrical consumption is changing, that does not mean it’s flat-out time for a new panel. However, these may be import aspects to consider.
In some cases, the internal wiring connections or the breakers inside a service panel start to show signs of age, and potential safety issues may arise as a result. As much as we’d prefer to, we cannot simply ignore the aging process. It makes good sense to have an experienced electrician give your panel a close look, periodically.
In addition, a home’s electrical load normally changes, over time. In many cases, electrical consumption increases as a result of new appliances, electrical devices, and/or additional occupants, as well as projects such as a basement finish or even adding on to the home.
Whenever there’s any question about the ability of your home’s electrical service panel’s ability to do its job safely for your home in Golden, CO, we recommend that you contact Save Home Heat Company for friendly, professional, expert service. No pressure, no sales agendas. Squarely focused on your best interests.
Reasons for considering electrical panel replacement in your home may include:
- Existing electrical panel cannot safely support the current or planned increase of electrical load on the home
- A desire to bring the existing electrical panel in line with current NEC safety code requirements
- Internal wiring is showing signs of deterioration
- Multiple circuit breakers frequently tripping for no good reason
- Flickering or dimming lights on multiple electrical circuits
- Service panel is warm or hot to the touch and the cause does not appear to be a specific breaker
- Rust or burn marks, or unusual smells inside the electrical panel
- Buzzing sounds coming from the panel, consistent or occasional
- Strong recommendation from a licensed, professional electrician, due to the age and condition of the panel
- Specific safety concerns with the panel have been identified!
Just because you are expanding your home’s electrical needs that doesn’t always mean you need to spring for an entirely new service panel. For example, in some cases where the existing panel is in good shape and still has the capacity, it may make sense to consider the installation of an electrical subpanel, aka. a satellite breaker box. Installed adjacent to the panel or even in a different location in your home, a subpanel could end up being the most appropriate (and cost-effective!) solution for needs. It all depends on the specific situation and the assessment of a knowledgeable, experienced electrician. For Golden homeowners, Save Home Heat Company is a great choice!
Electrical Safety is Essential
Your electrical service panel is vital to your home, and what’s even more important is that it’s running safely and reliably. Whether electrical needs that have evolved over the years, the vagaries of age, or plans to create more finished square footage in your home, our electrical team at Save Home Heat is a highly reputable, trusted source to help ensure your safety and help educate you and answer questions about your home’s electrical system.
Electrical Panel Upgrades for Golden Homeowners
At Save Home Heat Company, our goal is to provide you with the very best customer experience and to exceed your expectations. You can count on our entire team to do our very best to earn your trust and future business every time you give us the opportunity to work in your home. To learn more about our electrical panel upgrade services, or to obtain a service panel replacement quote, please contact our team today.
Our Complete Line of Quality Home Services Includes:
- AC Repair, Maintenance, and Installation – Ductless & Central Systems
- Furnace, Boiler, and Heat Pump Repair, Maintenance, and Installations
- Hot Water Baseboard and Radiant Floor Heating System Service & Installation
- Household Plumbing Services
- Complete Residential Electrical Services
- Central Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Products
- Water Heater Repairs & Installation – Standard, High Recovery, Tankless, and more