5 Common Home Electrical Panel Problems
Electrical problems are pretty common and sometimes these problems can be easy to fix. We thought it would be nice to do a little run-down of the most common electrical panel problems. You can expect to experience these problems in your home and it’s always better to know this.
Keep an eye out for these five issues with your electrical panel.
1. Corrosion
Corrosion is probably the most common problem, and it ranges from very minimal to very excessive. Any source of moisture, such as humidity or even a steady dripping of water entering from a main service wire, can do a whole lot of serious damage to electric panels.
If you can eliminate all sources of moisture in your home, you will do yourself a big favor and will avoid corrosion altogether. Once corrosion gets bad enough, electrical connections become compromised. You’ll probably have to get wires and other parts repaired or replaced.
2. Double taps
The term “double tap” refers to multiple hot or physical wires that are physically connected to a single lug.
This is most common on breakers, and is usually done because there are no more slots in the panel to add any new circuits. The only other option is to “tap” into an existing circuit at the breaker’s connection . While this is not usually a serious concern, double tapping is contrary to proper installation.
3. Oversized breakers or fuses
We call this problem as “overfusing”. This condition occurs whenever a load-carrying wire is obviously undersized when compared to the rating of the fuse or breaker to which it is connected. This condition can be very serious and has the potential to burn down a house!
4. Improper bonding
Box bonding is the best type of bonding to have inside a panel, but not all panels have it. Generally speaking, a typical interior main electric panel should have some type of panel enclosure. Any sub panel that resides within the same structure should not have any type of bonding in place.
5. Bad or missing handle ties.
A handle tie is the device which physically connects the two separate breaker switches on a 2-pole breaker. Take note you should not replace this tie with just any item. Most often, these ties are missing altogether.
Sometimes these materials are like a nail or a short piece of wire. This is a huge hazard and can cause many electrical problems.
If you have any further questions on these issues, request Wire Craft to check your electrical panel. Explore our services and request a service!
