Electrical Panels: Why You Shouldn't Touch Them & Why We Should

Did we get your attention? Today we're talking about your electrical panel!

For reference, your panel probably looks something like this:

Your electrical panel is the heart of your electrical system. Electrical panels go by many names: breaker panels, load centers, service panels or breaker boxes. It’s the steel box that holds your home’s circuit breakers. When needed, the circuit breakers turn off or “trip” the circuits that carry power throughout your home.

Your panel is the origin of a circuit, coming from a circuit breaker, and is what feeds the rest of your house's appliances, outlets, etc.

Besides flipping a breaker on and off, we always recommend having a professional do anything further. Although a breaker panel may appear simple, it's a relatively complex piece of equipment that caries heavy risk when not handled professionally. A breaker panel carries heavy electrical current, and if you touch the panel somewhere that's energized, there are a number of things that can happen: An arc flash can blind you, if you aren't insulated you can die of electrical shock through your heart (called ventricular fibrillation), or if a leg of a 240 volt circuit is loose and your panel is live, the loose wire could touch and electrocute you.

Even if you have turned the main breaker off, there are parts of your electrical panel that are still energized all of the time, and if touched can cause an above hazard to occur.

We don't say this to scare you, just to impart how important it is to have a licensed electrician work on your panel.

Now onto the good stuff!

What are the things that a licensed electrician can do for your panel to improve your home?

1. Install surge protection. Read more HERE.
   

2. Check your electrical impedance (Which is the "path to ground", or how strong the path is that will safely dissipate unwanted electrical current) using a ground impedance tester.
   

3. Check the temperature of your main lugs and connections. This helps tell us if there are bad connections that could cause potential hazards or energy inefficiency.
   

4. Visual panel inspection & tune up. This includes an inspection of all breakers and lugs, and a tune up which will include tightening connections.
   

5. Bus bar inspection to make sure it's still in a safe operating condition to prevent any future hazards from occurring.

If you're interested in any of the above services or have questions about your panel that you'd like answered, feel free to reach out by email (info@thegloudemanelectric.com), text, or call (909-801-4009).

Thank you for your time and stay safe!

- The Gloudeman Electric Team

Your Ground Rod: The Piece of Metal Between You & 1 Billion Volts of Electricity

Although ground rods are simple, they are crucial to protecting your electric equipment and appliances, and therefore must not be neglected. Read on!

What is a ground rod?

To put it simply, a ground rod is approximately 1/2" in diameter and eight to 10 feet long. It is typically made of copper or copper-coated steel. It's usually located very close to your main electrical service panel, and must be electrically tied to that panel in order to provide approved ground connection.

What does it do/What does it protect against?

Ground rods are very good conductors of electricity. They allow any dangerous electricity to flow to ground (yes, the earth!), taking the danger away from you and the electrical panel. Without a ground rod, electricity from lightning strikes (up to 1 billion volts of electricity) near your main panel can go through that panel and then on through your electrical system (this is BAD).

Although lightning is often the cause of what we call an "electrical surge", there are other ways that harmful amounts of electricity can damage (or worse) your system. Voltage spikes can also occur when large appliances or heavy machinery at nearby locations are switched on or off. Proper grounding provides stability to your home’s electrical system and reduces the impact of these surges.

How do I know if my ground rod is up to an approved standard?

We offer a ground rod test using a top of the line impedance (the effective resistance of an electric circuit or component to alternating current) tester that induces a current on your grounding system. Our test also reads the impedance at the same time to determine not only if your system works, but how well it works. We're essentially verifying that electricity has a nice solid place to go in case of a voltage strike.

What else can I do to protect myself and my electrical system?

If you follow us on social media, you may know we're always singing the praises of having surge protection! You can read more about surge protection on this blog post HERE, but in a nutshell, surge protectors installed in your electrical panel help protect your system from electrical surges often caused by lightning storms or other voltage spikes. These surges can fry your electrical appliances--everything from your refrigerator to your television--as well as damage your wires and system itself. We often visit homes to repair damage caused by an electrical surge that could have been prevented by a surge protector. Especially in the Lowcountry, lightning carries a huge risk of voltage spikes.

We start with installing surge protection in your main panel, but we can also install surge protection for your pool pump system or air conditioning system. If you have more than one main panel, we suggest installing surge protection in each panel.

Although not 100% effective (sometimes when massive amounts of electricity are put on your system, no protection can prevent damage), but having a surge protector in your electrical panel is like wearing a shield when going into battle.

What next?

If you don't know if your grounding system is secure, we highly recommend having us come take a look at and test your grounding system. We can install surge protection at the same time. For pricing, please email info@thegloudemanelectric.com, or call/text 909-801-4009.

If you want to jump right in and book online, book a Level 1 job HERE (please note in the comments that you'd like a ground test...If you hire us to install surge protection, it comes with a free grounding system test!)

2020 Surge Protection Package

If you're a customer of ours, you've probably heard us shouting from the mountaintops about how important surge protection is. For a general rundown on surge protection, check out our earlier blog post HERE. Essentially, surge protectors installed in your electrical panel help protect your system from electrical surges often caused by lightning storms. These surges can fry your electrical appliances--everything from your refrigerator to your television--as well as damage your wires and system itself. We often visit homes to repair damage caused by an electrical surge that could have been prevented by a surge protector.

So how does our surge protection package stand out from other electrical companies' offerings in the Mt. Pleasant area?

One very important test:

One crucial part of a surge protector is A GOOD GROUNDING SYSTEM. A surge protector is ONLY as good as the ground it is going to. What does that mean in layman's terms? A grounding rod (think Benjamin Franklin) directs electricity back into the ground. If your ground rod or grounding system is inefficient or damaged, that electricity will have nowhere to go. So where does it go? Right back into your house and through the easiest path. Why doesn't a surge protector work if you don't have a good grounding system? How a surge protector works is by redirecting electricity. Instead of the electrical surge making its way from breaker to breaker in your electrical panel, it sends the charge back to your ground. If your grounding system is broken, that electrical charge will go back into your house--yikes!

Most electrical companies do not test your grounding system before installing surge protection!

Not only are our surge protectors high quality (some companies install low-grade surge protectors that don't protect against high voltage electrical surges), but we also INCLUDE the ground rod testing system specifically with this package! It's a state of the art testing system that determines an integral piece of your home's electrical safety system.

How do we do test your grounding system?

We’ve got a top of the line impedance (the effective resistance of an electric circuit or component to alternating current) tester that induces a current on your grounding system. Our test also reads the impedance at the same time to determine not only if your system works, but how well it works. We're essentially verifying that electricity has a nice solid place to go in case of a surge strike.

Interested in our surge protection package? If you want to get right on it before the worst of the storm season hits, book a Level 1 job and we'll email you back with the cost of the package. If you have questions first, email us at info@thegloudemanelectric.com, or call/text at 909-801-4009.

Thank you and stay safe out there!

Andrew & the Gloudeman Electric team

*We also offer this ground testing as a separate service.