Thousands of residential electrical service changes

Hi this is Tom harp Providence electric . I have done literally thousands of electrical service changes over the years on residential dwellings . The customers almost always have some issue that they are dealing with in regards to the internal wiring of the home . They usually are dealing with some sort of issue like their circuit breakers are constantly tripping or dimming lights . While changing out your residential electrical service is not always the answer to problems like this it usually is the first step . Because solving these types of problems usually requires adding additional wiring to the house having an electrical panel that is big enough to add wires to is a necessity .of

How much of the existing electrical service should be changed ?

one of the main issues that your run into when you are replacing your residential electrical service is how much of the existing service will be replaced ? the rule for this according to the inspections department is if you replace more than two thirds of the service then you have to replace the entire service . The service is considered basically to be three parts usually on older home . The first part is the electrical meter base . This is where the electrical utility company sets their glass mechanical meter . This is what the utility company uses to measure the amount of electricity you are using in house . The second part is your main electrical panel . This is usually located outside in North Carolina and is usually directly adjacent to the electrical meter base . The third part on older home is usually an interior sub-panel . This panel is usually located in some inconvenient location such as the kitchen or other less than desirable locations such as a Laundry room behind the washing machine . The current national electrical code forbids both of these locations for electrical sub panels .

Residential electrical service change and additional items .

There are various other items that go along with doing an electrical service change for A residence .Near the main meter Base on the exterior of the home there are two ground rods required to be driven 8 feet into the ground . These items are pretty much self-explanatory by their name . They are long metal rods that you drive into the ground with a fencepost driver or a Roto hammer with a special adapter on it . There is another ground wire that needs to be run to the main plumbing of the house . This utilizes the utility water company conduit that is in the ground in the front yard of your home if you have city water . It is required that this wire be hooked to the pipe within 2 feet of where it enters the crawlspace . This wire can be 40 feet long . It is solid copper and is relatively expensive . Along with those items many times the wire that goes to the overhead service riser connecting to the utility needs to be replaced . As you can see doing a panel change out quickly turns into a proverbial can of worms . It is not a cheap undertaking . But when you consider that this feeds the entire electrical system of your house that is valued at over Hundred and $50,000.00 to over $1,000,000.00 it is a relatively small investment to make sure that your home is safe .