An Electrical Panel also called a breaker box, is a control panel that receives the main power and safely distributes electrical current to the other outlets throughout your home.
It is the breaker panel that ensures the safety of your home electrical systems and circuits. This panel automatically trips off and cuts down power to prevent electrical fire when an outlet or circuit becomes overloaded. It can also be turned off manually by an electrician to allow for safe electrical inspection, repairs, and renovations in your home.
Does your electrical panel trip off whenever you turn on your heater, toaster, or use any heavy appliance in your home?
Call a licensed electrician for repairs immediately. Frequent tripping of a circuit could be an indication of an underlying problem in the electrical panel. If left unchecked, it could lead to injuries, electrical fires, and damage to your property. An electrician can detect the problem and provide the best solution to safely restore electricity to your homeCall a licensed electrician for repairs immediately. Frequent tripping of a circuit could be an indication of an underlying problem in the electrical panel. If left unchecked, it could lead to injuries, electrical fires, and damage to your property. An electrician can detect the problem and provide the best solution to safely restore electricity to your home
Once you open your panel box, you will instantly see several electrical switches or circuit breakers.
Usually, one electrical panel serves the entire house, but you can also have smaller panels known as subpanels to feed specific areas with high energy consumption such as your garage, kitchen, and laundry room.
Each circuit breaker controls the power to a room in your home. There is a circuit breaker for your living room, kitchen, bedroom, basement, and bathroom. These breakers safely regulate the flow of electricity in the circuits and the electrical panel. It automatically trips off when there is a circuit overload or other electrical issue and can be manually switched back on.
In a large house, a room may have more than one circuit breaker on the electrical panel.
Every circuit breaker on the panel should be labeled with their corresponding rooms to make it easier to trace electrical faults, troubleshoot issues, and conveniently conduct routine maintenance. You can use stickers or hand-written labels to mark each circuit breaker.
Some old houses are yet to upgrade their electrical system. These houses use outdated electrical panels with fuses instead of the modern circuit breaker panel.
To see the other components of your electrical panel that are beyond the breaker switches, you will have to remove the dead front cover. For safety and to prevent electrocution, always turn off the main circuit breaker before removing the dead front cover.Removing this cover gives you access to all the components of the panel if you are looking to install or replace a circuit breaker.
The main circuit breaker is a large switch sitting at the top of the panel or near the bottom in some panel designs. This switch controls the power flowing to the breakers controlling individual circuits in the panel.
The main circuit breaker also displays the total amperage capacity of the electrical panel. A label containing the panel’s amp capacity such as 100, 150, or 200, can be found next to the main circuit breaker.
Electricity from your electric meter is fed into the electrical panel through the hot bus bars. Circuit breakers are firmly fixed into the bus bars to provide power to the circuits.
Depending on the chosen connection to the hot bus bar, circuit breakers are of two types:
A: Single-pole circuit breakers: these are connected to one hot bus bar and deliver 120 volts of electric current.
B: Double-pole circuit breakers: these snap into two hot bus bars and provide 240 volts.
Electricity leaves the electrical panel through the hot wires from the circuit breakers. One wire, usually black transports current from a single-pole breaker to your room. While two hot wires, mostly black and red, are connected to the double-pole breakers.
Circuit breakers are designed to prevent electrical fires and property damage in your home. If a circuit draws current above its amperage capacity, the circuit breaker would trip off and cut power to that circuit. This prevents the wiring from heating up and igniting.
Some circuit breakers are designed to provide specific electrical safety such as:
I. Ground-fault circuit-interrupter (GFCI) breakers: These help to prevent electrocution by protecting the entire circuit from ground faults.
II. Arc-fault circuit-interrupter (AFCI) breakers: These prevent house fires by protecting circuits from arc faults.
However, to protect your home from both shock and fire hazards, consider using a Dual-function breaker that combines GFCI and AFCI protection.
Do you have an electrical project or emergency? We are available 24/7 at Phase 1 Electric Services. Contact Us Now for licensed and reliable electrical services.
The best way to determine if your electrical panel is faulty is to hire an electrician to carry out a thorough inspection of the panel.
However, you can detect some common signs that indicate an existing fault with your electrical panel. Your panel is bad when there is a burning smell from the panel box, the box is too hot to touch, trips frequently, and has some physical damage.
Phase 1 Electric Services offers 24/7 emergency electrical service in Noblesville, IN, and surrounding areas. Call (463) 217-3568 today!
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