Electric Service Panels
An electric service panel is a device that connects the electricity provided by your utility company to your house’s electrical system. These panels have circuit breakers in the case a circuit inside the panel overloads. Sometimes from excessive load or old systems these panels might be damaged. If this happens they have to be replaced. This is recommended to be done by a professional electrician in order to prevent potentially dangerous situations. An electric panel should be located closely to the areas of heavy electrical load. You may also need an electrical permit from your municipality.
The right electric panel should be used regarding your home’s electrical load. Most common ones are between 100 and 150 amps. There are different types of electric panels that are installed for a home. The main breaker panel is the one connected to the utility power line. These sometimes also have a switch between them and the power source. These panels have circuits that can be routed to different parts of your home. Sub-panels can be installed if there aren’t enough circuits available on the main panel. You can also have switches that switch between a generator and your main power source in the case of an outage.
How to Replace Them
To replace these electric panels, you should definitely contact an electrician to make sure of safety. Many steps of this process could be very dangerous to an untrained person and the help of an electrician is once again strictly recommended. The replacement process requires fastening the panel in place and switching the main power line off and taking off the old panels cover. Then, all of the wires connected to the breakers must be disconnected in order. Then the faulty breakers must be removed from the old panel box and the desired breakers should be installed in the new electric panel and the cables should be reinstalled in their proper place. The cables may need to be extended. After this, the utility company should switch the power between the old electric panel and the new one. Then the power can be turned on but this must be done one breaker at a time starting with the main breaker to prevent a power surge.
