Any good electrician Los Angeles will tell you that when you buy an old home or perhaps you own one, you need to seriously consider doing an electric panel upgrade; this is especially important if you own electronics and appliances or you plan to purchase a few more. In most of these old homes the circuit box or fuse box through which electricity is brought into your house is not big enough to accommodate the modern lifestyle. When you don’t get a West Covina electrician to do an upgrade soon enough, there will be telltale signs that it is time you contacted a residential Santa Monica electrician or you will be courting disaster. Some of the most common signs include the following:
Insufficient power: Most modern homes have a number of kitchen appliances that run on electricity as well as an HVAC system, a computer network and several other electronic devices that are found in a modern home. You need no less than 200 amps of power to service your home. The problem with the electrical panels in older homes is that they offer no more than 100 amps or thereabout; unless you get a Los Angeles electrician to advice you on a panel upgrade, your lights will start flickering as soon as you start watching TV, charging your phone or cooking breakfast as you dry your hair.
Larger than usual fuses: Hiring an electrician Pasadena is a necessity if you have had to install larger than normal fuses. Most of the old systems have only about 100 amps that come into your house or in other cases they are wired incorrectly. Some homeowners install larger fuses in order to prevent them from blowing when they are overloaded without knowing that this is a serious fire hazard.
The age of the panel: The lifespan of a typical electrical panel is between 20 and 30 years; an electric panel upgrade is imminent if your home is older than that. A Pasadena electrician should install one fuse or circuit breaker for every circuit or wire so that you stay in line with modern building codes.
The cost of bringing in a Los Angeles electrician to check the status of your current electrical panel and advice whether you need an upgrade can sometime scare some homeowners; you will need a new set of wires that will come in from the pole and a new meter. You will also require new wires to be directed from the panel and depending on the age and quality of wires that were used in the previous installation your electrician West Covina may have to replace them completely. However, the cost of ignoring that imminent need to let the Santa Monica electrician go on with the electric upgrade would be much higher.