Common issues in the electrical service panel of your house

What is an electrical service panel?

An electrical panel is where all the breaker switches are located. There are 2 types of switch in the control panel of the home.

1. Main Switch

2. Individual switch

Main Switch: Main switch controls the power of the entire house. It distributes current to the other individual switches. This is a high power rating switch.

Individual switch: This switch provides power to the particular area or room and has a limited number of loads so, low power rating switch will work here. Electrician will analyze your requirement and according to the load he/ she will install switches for each room.

How does the electrical panel work?

Each circuit breaker switch is designed to trip when the circuit is overloaded. This is the primary safety device for controlling the short circuit. If this device does not work, there could be big issue. Each switch is designed to carry a certain amount of power according to the rating on them. If it carries too much, the wires could overheat and possibly catch the fire.

Tv, Lights, etc needs 120 volts and big appliances such as a stove, electric dryer needs 240 volts. When the circuit breaker switch trips, just reset it. Whereas in older homes with fuses, the fuse is damaged once due to overload you need to replace it.

Issues in the electrical panel in home

• Corrosion is the most common problem electrical panels have. Any source of moisture, such as humidity, water particles or any water droplet that leads with the wire into the panel can cause serious problems with the electric panel.
• It is advisable to keep the moisture controlled in your home to prevent the corrosion.
• Multiple hot or physical wires that are physically connected to the single lug. This is practiced by unprofessional electricians, to save the extra circuit breaker switch. This will not create any serious problem but should not be done.
• If an electrician doesn’t analyze the appliance’s requirement and installed overrated circuit breaker switches, the switch will not trigger when the excess amount of the current passes through it and leads to some serious problem like fire. It can burn down whole house due to this problem.
• Uncovered service panel is another issue that needs to be addressed. Main electric panel should always be under enclosure and nothing should be blocking the access.
• Cable tie is used to physically connect two circuit breakers switch on a 2-pole breaker. Do not replace this with any other item in case you missed it out. It may lead to hazard.

You can contact us to repair your electric panel. We serve in Edmonton, St Albert, Sherwood Park, Leduc, Beaumont, Fort Saskatchewan Spruce Grove and surrounding areas. Our Mission is to provide exceptional electrical services and educate our clients on current electrical code and technologies that are used to safeguard the house. Our endeavor is to surpass our customer’s expectations and to be the leader in our industry by providing quality service with competitive pricing. Our Team consists of highly skilled technicians that will work for you around the clock with 24/7 emergency electrical services. We are pleased to provide certified technicians with thousands of hours of rigorous training, background checks and drug testing.

Give us a call at 780-476-1413 for any electrical issue. Need a quote? Get it here