Owning a home is a lot of responsibility. If you’re a first time owner, or you’ve recently moved into a new home there are a few electrical tips you should be aware of. These tips can help you avoid common electrical issues, and keep your family and home safer. Here’s some advice from the electrical experts at Fusion Electric.

Electrical Panels Need to be Replaced Every 20 Years

Electrical panels are like the central nervous system of your home’s electricity. It’s where all the electricity in your home flows through it, and it keeps your home safe by detecting circuit overloads, and tripping the circuit to keep your home from catching on fire. But like an organ, electrical panels wear over time. Our electricians suggest replacing yours every 20 years. If you’re not sure how old yours is, we can come perform a safety inspection to determine if yours needs to be replaced or not.

Know the Size and Brand of Your Panel

Knowing more information about your panel is also important. You should know the size and brand of your panel to ensure it’s up to code. The minimum size, or number of amps, your panel needs to be in order for your home to be insured is usually 100 amps. Any smaller, and you will have a hard time getting insured. That’s because we use a lot of electrical appliances every day, and your home’s electrical panel needs to be large enough to handle the load.

Also make sure you know the brand or make of your panel. Some of the older brands are out of date, and have known safety issues. If your home’s electrical panel is a Federal Pacific, Zinsco, Wadsworth, or Pushmatic, we recommend replacing it.

Aluminum Wiring Needs to be Changed to Copper

Make sure you know the type of wiring that’s in your home, especially if it’s an older home. Some older homes were originally wired with aluminum, which is now known to be a fire hazard. Over time, the hot electrical current erodes the insulation and makes it brittles. If the insulation erodes enough for two aluminum wires to touch, you could have a fire on your hands. It’s hard to tell what type of wiring is in your home though, because you usually have to cut into a wire to determine this. And even then, past homeowners may have installed copper clad aluminum wiring, so it looks like copper, but it still poses a threat.

Get an Electrical Home Inspection

A home safety inspection can uncover some hazardous electrical problems. If you’ve recently moved, the home inspector may have missed common red flags. We highly suggest you call Fusion Electric for a home safety inspection, even if you’ve been in your home for years. If you’ve rearranged furniture and rooms, you could be overloading electrical circuits and not even know it. Or if you’re going to be remodeling your home, this is a perfect time to have an inspection because everything is already exposed for us to check out. We can also make sure that the contractor’s finished plans will work with your current electrical system, or recommend needed changes to the plan.

Call Fusion Electric today to schedule a home safety inspection, or to help replace outdated wiring in your home. You can reach us at 913-563-7975.