With all of the new modern appliances and technical devices we now have in our home, we find that older homes might not have sufficient power available to handle the increased demand.  In these cases a service change is required. This includes not only an upgrade in your electric panel, but an upgrade in your meter socket and wire size between the meter and panel.

Breaker panel upgrades can prevent unwanted downtime and overloads, which can be extremely dangerous.  Most of the time, upgrading your electrical system is a much more cost-effective solution rather than replacing your existing equipment. 

Old main panels have limitations on available space to add circuits or some still have fuses (some insurance carriers will not insure a property that has fuses).  Many old panels have had circuits added and have simply "maxed out".  Or after so many years of use, many old panels are of inferior quality and simply stop working and need to be replaced. 

An electric service upgrade is often recommended or required to increase the capacity of the existing electrical service.  As we mentioned earlier, many of today's older homes don't have the sufficient power available to handle the increased demand and therefor a service change is required.  A service change may include not only upgrading your electric panel, the wire between the utility and the meter, and the grounding system as well. 

A panel change out or replacement is usually required to alleviate a problem with the existing panel.  Sometimes a breaker might overheat to the point that the "bussbar" in the panel gets burned out.  The conductors between the meter and panel may become loose and burn out the main lugs, which is especially common when aluminum conductors were used.  Split-buss panels, cheap builder-grade panels, panels contaminated by water, paint, and corrosive environments are often candidates for replacement. 

615 Electric will take care of all required city administration and scheduling, permitting paperwork, and coordination with the electrical company prior to servicing your panel.  The power will be disconnected while the work is being completed and will be restored once the job is completed.  In many cases we can complete the service/panel upgrade with minimal disruption to the incoming power. 

Many of us are familiar with the old screw in fuses. And those that have a fuse panel know that if the 15 amp fuse keeps blowing you can screw in a 20 amp, 25 amp, 30 amp fuse until the fuse stops blowing.

This is where the problem lies. The fuses are rated for the wire it is protecting. Our standard lights and receptacles work off a 14 gauge wire. The wire is rated to carry a maximum of 15 amps. So when we plug in too many devices on one circuit the fuse becomes overheated and ‘blows’. By using a larger fuse we may stop the problem of the fuse blowing all the time but the wire is rated to carry only 15 amps. Now that we have used a larger fuse the wire becomes overheated as it is working beyond capacity. These overheated wires are running through wood studs in the walls. The potential for fire now exists.

This is why the insurance companies would like the panel changed over from fuses to breakers. They know that the home will be much safer with a new breaker panel than the old fuse panel.