Electricians: A Powerful GroupElectricians: A Powerful Group

Hiring an electrician to help you with your electrical updates is crucial if you are adding new wiring, a new electrical panel or sub-panel, or anytime you are not comfortable doing the work yourself. In some states, you must hire an electrician for any electrical work in your home, but you need to check with your local code enforcement or building inspector's office to find out what is required in your area.

Installing New Circuits

Many times when you start to add additional outlets, lights, or other electrical resources in the home, you may need to add some additional circuits to your electrical system. Hiring an electrician is almost always required for this kind of work because it involves adding wiring to the house, connecting the wiring in the breaker panel, and adding additional breakers to the box.

If there's is not enough space in the box for additional electrical circuits, the electrician may need to upgrade the service, adding a larger box and creating more space for the additional circuits. To do this, the electrician will need to have the electric utility provider come and pull the meter and shut off the service until the wiring is transferred into the new panel. 

In most cases, the change over for the service will only take a few hours, but it is good to plan the update when no one is going to be home or need electricity in the house. Once the new panel is in and the wiring from the electric utility is secured in the new panel, the power can be turned back on and the electrician can finish adding the new circuits. 

Sub-Panel Installation

A sub-panel is essentially a small version of the breaker box that runs off the primary system but is dedicated to a circuit that is being used in a shop, a garage, a shed, or an in-law suite that needs dedicated power to it, and needs to be installed by a qualified electrician. The sub-panel will have energy as long as there is the power to the main panel in the house, but it allows the electricity to be shut down in the specific area that the sub-panel feeds.

If there is a problem in the garage, for instance, you can shut down select areas without having to shut down all the electricity in the home. If the electrician has set the sub-panel up correctly, the breakers in it should trip before tripping the main breaker at the house, but if the power needs to be cut completely, shutting down the main will kill all the power to the sub-panel. 

For more information, contact a company like Gotto Electric.