Before you start any upgrades to your older home make sure you have had a skilled electrician check your electric panel first, to see if it can handle it. Many older homes had only 60-amp service, with the screw in type fuses. In some cases there were 2 to 6 fuses per box, and this was all that was needed to run the home. As primitive as that sounds, that was the way life way 40+ years ago.
At that time, most homes did not automatically come with washers and dryers, large TV’s all over the hosue, or even air conditioning. There was one simple light per room, 1 TV for the whole house, and maybe a few plugs for a radio- and that was a modern home.
Computers, hair dryers, multiple lighting in each room, microwaves, washers and dryers, high-energy refrigerators and freezers have brought with them a huge demand for electricity that older homes simply cannot provide without some upgrades.
The typical home today is equipped with a 200 amp electrical service with a distribution panel handling up to a total of 20 or 30 15 & 20 amp general lightning and receptacle circuits serving the electrical requirements of one home.
Many of today’s air conditioning units will use as much electricity as an entire home did 30 years ago.
If your home is still using fuses instead of breakers, you may want to consider contacting Edison Electric to have an upgrade. Those fuses are generally considered outdated these days, as many of those fuse panels have been in service for forty plus years. Fuses panels are just not designed to handle the amounts of current that they typical American uses these days. Like all things in a home, they eventually need repair. Upgrading your electric panel is something that you will never regret, and many times homeowners insurance policies will not be valid unless the home is equipped with UL listed electric panel.
If your current electrical service to your home is less than 100 amps, and/or if it has a distribution panel that uses screw in style fuses, you should consider replacing it as a top priority in any major renovation project. Give Edison Electric Minneapolis Contractors a call to learn more about how we can help correct this situation, and help finance the operations at the same time. You will be glad you did. 612-385-7864
