>>Panel Upgrades

Does your Greater Boston home still have an old style fuse panel? Are circuits overloaded? Have circuits been “doubled-up?” Has new wiring been added over the years, and does it meet code? Has your Insurance Company refused to renew your home insurance policy? Your home may be in need of a service panel upgrade.

Modern Circuit Breaker Panels are more convenient, and are built to far higher safety standards than outdated fuse panels.

Extra protection is incorporated into the latest equipment in the form of circuit breakers. These circuit breakers protect every device in the house with sensitive circuitry that responds quickly if there is a fault, opening the circuit and eliminating the risk of danger. There is also excellent protection available in the form of Ground-Fault Circuit Breakers and Arc-Fault Circuit Breakers.

Older Equipment and wiring systems did not have to support the modern appliances of our day. Overloading and doubling up of circuits is commonly seen on older outdated fuse panels, the result of improper installations that were never inspected. This can cause fires. Upgrading the source of power distribution to your home by installing a new Circuit Breaker Main Service Panel, can eliminate this potentially dangerous situation.

Here are some reasons to Upgrade your Panel:

• Reduce the chance of an electrical fire.

• Eliminate doubled-up circuits.

• Eliminate the need to replace fuses, or the chance to install the wrong size of fuse, which is a common fire hazard.

• Capacity to add additional circuits in the future.

• Increase the resale value of your home.

Don’t compromise on safety. First, have your system inspected by one of our highly qualified technicians. We will help you to decide on whether you should have your outdated fuse panel replaced with a modern Circuit Breaker panel.

Knowing About Grounding for Those Electrical Activities

What is Grounding?

Most of all, grounding is a safety system for your dwelling. not only does it guard our abodes but it also insures your safety. Simply put your electrical system is connected to the earth. All of the metal parts that your electrical system has or can possible come in contact with are wired in such away as to pass any electrical current directly into the earth if need be.

Understanding what a Ground Fault is.

Grounding is a safeguard that kicks in when an electrical problem known as a ground fault pops up. An example of this would be when a damaged wire makes contact with its conductive shroud. This can also happen if you mistakenly attempt to work on your electrical system without first shutting off the power.

No matter the cause of the ground fault, the path of the electricity does not flow through the circuit as normal. When working properly the electricity is fed through the positive wire into a load, such as an appliance, then it returns to the electrical panel via the neutral wire. When a ground fault happens, the current bypasses the load and if wired correctly pass through to the grounding wire. Because the circuit now has a direct path to the ground, it causes what is known as a short or short circuit. This short in turn causes the circuit to use overflowing power, this extra power consumption then results in the breaker inside your electrical panel to trip shutting off the power to the circuit.

Because grounding is so terribly important, the connections that connect your electrical panel to the earth must be made using specific connections. The main grounding wire from your panel is either connected to the earth via a grounding rod or via cold water lines. Depending on your location, other methods such as ground plates are used or the grounding wire is connected to a concrete foundation.

Call H.O. Electric today to look at your homes grounding system. This would be very important to do if you’re a buying a new home as well as checking the integrity of your existing home's electrical system.