Electrical Panel Services in Sioux City, Iowa

Breaker boxes or electrical panels channel electricity from the electric company to the home and regulate how much energy is distributed to each circuit. When your panel malfunctions, it can affect many of the systems in your home. If some of your outlets aren’t working even after resetting a tripped breaker, then expert intervention becomes a necessity. They can repair and install these panels to bring homes back to normalcy.

Electrical panels are typically situated in a basement, utility closet, garage, or on the outside of a home. Every homeowner should be able to access their electrical panel quickly and know how it operates. An old panel, or even a certain brand, might no longer be safe to have in your home. Homeowners using old electrical panels should schedule an electrical safety inspection to ensure that all of your electrical wiring is up to date and in good working order.

When to Replace your Electrical Panel

Breakers are the ones that control how much electrical energy flows into the circuits in the home. They trip and impede electrical flow whenever a circuit becomes overloaded. This is a common experience and often happens if multiple appliances are using the same circuit at the same time. It is easy to fix this. You just need to unplug the devices and reset the breaker.

If this is happening regularly however, you may require professional servicing to replace your old panel with an updated one with enough capacity to adequately supply all your family’s power usage needs. If it’s just a single breaker tripping, and it’s not a result of an overloaded system, then maybe you just have a bad breaker that needs replacement to correct the issue.

If you constantly need to repair your panel, it might be necessary to replace it with a new one. If you “inherited” the panel from the previous owner of your home and aren’t sure how old it is, a mix of different breaker brands and colors is a good visual indication that several breakers have had to be replaced.

When you want to have an old appliance replaced, you need to have an electrician present. This is a crucial step in case your appliance needs a lot more power to run than the last one. If your electrical panel cannot manage the higher electrical requirement, then you need to have a new panel installed that can handle it.

More current boards are presently fitted with AFCI outlets, which shield wires from flames started by jumping electricity. This security feature may not be included if your panel was mounted before 1999. If the AFCI outlets aren’t available at the panel or circuit starters around your home, your home could be vulnerable.

A skilled electrician can inspect and assess any vulnerability in your panel and outlets. While replacing your entire panel may be an option, if the panel doesn’t have any other issues, you may find it a more cost-efficient solution to simply install AFCI outlets at the beginning of each circuit.

If there is any corrosion or rusting anywhere around the panel, it’s necessary to replace it immediately. The panels that have undergone wear and tear are prone to surge, fire, or another kind of damages if they are not taken care of appropriately.

Other signs that your panel needs replacing include:

• the panel is warm or hot to the touch
• appliances overheating quickly when plugged in
• melted electrical wires
• burning smell coming from the panel
• burn marks on panel or outlets
• hissing
• popping or other noises coming from the breaker box
• lights flickering when appliances are in use

If you feel like there’s something weird going on with your electricity, it’s time to hire a professional. An overloaded circuit could end up damaging or destroying anything that is plugged into it. It can be expensive and dangerous to ignore the signs of a faulty panel. Terrible things such as fires and electrocutions could happen if your electrical panel malfunctions.

Though an electrical panel should have a decent lifespan, they’ll eventually be subject to wear and tear. Even the wires can become frayed or worn and give issues to different parts of the home. In some cases, rodents may chew on the wires and disrupt the system. Whatever may go wrong with your home’s electrical system, you can rely on a qualified electrician to diagnose and repair any problems.

You may need to replace the entire unit, or it might be as simple as replacing a wire. If the new panel is an indispensable need, the electrician can help you in selecting the best one for your home and install it in no time to make your home safe with a good flow of electricity.

To keep your home and family safe, it’s important to contact a professional to check your home’s panel. Electrical panel work should only be done by a professional electrician. Electricians are knowledgeable with all kinds of electrical work and will quickly provide safe electrical service for your home. Contact Mitchell Electric online or give us a call at (605) 232-5527 to schedule service.