Electrical Panel Installation
Have a power outage or surge caused damage to your main electrical service panel? Are you upgrading your electrical service and adding a level II EV charger or a photovoltaic (PV) solar array? Do you need to install new subpanels or the main electrical service panel if you’re building a new house? Have you noticed that there are no spaces on your electrical panel accessible for additional circuits?
In Grove, Oklahoma, and the neighboring communities, Meridian Home Services is a local, woman-owned, veteran-led electrical contracting firm delivering safe electrical panel installation and upgrades. Our staff is equipped with the necessary technical know-how and hands-on expertise to finish electrical load calculations, install new PV solar systems and electrical service panels and subpanels, add whole-house electrical surge protection, and include level II electric car charging. Contact our solutions advisor today.
Meridian Home Services Delivers Safe Electrical Panel Upgrades and Installation:
- Electrical inspections, installation, and replacements
- Electrical repairs, installation, and replacements
- Lighting Fixtures installation and replacements
- Doorbell wiring installation and replacements
- Telephone and data cabling installation and replacements
- Computer and television cabling installation and replacements
- HVAC control wiring installation, replacements, and upgrades
- Branch circuit wiring installation, replacements, and upgrades
- Feeder circuit wiring installation, replacements, and upgrades
- Service wiring installation, replacements, and upgrades
- Photovoltaic (PV) solar systems installation and replacements
- Electric vehicle (EV) charging station installations and upgrades
- Ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) installation and replacements
- Arc-fault circuit interrupter (AFCI) installation and replacements
- Whole home surge protection installation and replacements
- Electrical sub-panel installation and replacements
- Electrical panel upgrade
- Electrical service upgrade
- Electrical load calculations
Electrical Service Panels – Breaker Box
Did you Know?
Many existing main electrical service panels, also known as a breaker box, are unsafe due to manufacturing defects. These panels are responsible for thousands of home fires per year as well as personal injuries and sadly, fatalities. Two notorious electrical service panels Federal Pacific and Zinsco, were installed in millions of home in the United States between 1950 and the early 1980s. After multiple lawsuits and litigation, both manufacturers are now defunct, leaving the risk, and replacement cost to homeowners. The fire risk and corresponding liability has been so bad for some insurers, many homeowners insurance providers will not issue coverage for a home that still has one of these panels installed. The best solution is to replace these dangerous panels with a new main electrical service panel. Choosing to replace an electrical service panel, is also a good time to consider enhanced safety features such as whole home surge protection, and advanced fault interrupters.
All electrical service panels have a finite number of circuit breaker positions. Many existing homes have smaller circuit breaker panels that are full, with no available breaker positions for new circuits. One alternative is to install a tandem, or duplex, circuit breaker which allows for two separate electrical circuits to be installed in a single breaker position on the panelboard. This practice although accepted by most Authority Having Jurisdictions (AHJs) does come with some risk. By placing two electrical circuits in such close proximity, within a breaker box, when both wires are supplying power, the tandem circuit breaker will generate more heat than a standard breaker, which is why most AHJs limit the use and quantity of duplex circuit breakers. A better alternative, is to add an electrical sub-panel or upgrade the main electrical service panel to one providing more circuit breaker positions.
The national drive towards electrification and distributed power production has many homeowners considering PV solar for their homes. There are two ways to interconnect solar production into a home’s electrical system. The load-side connection is by far the most common electrical connection method, due to the ease of installation and cost considerations. However, load-side interconnections do limit the quantity of solar production that can be safely supplied through an electrical panel. Two National Electric Code (NEC) rules and corresponding calculations are used to determine the maximum amount of solar production an electrical service panel can safely receive. Which rule applies, is determined by the location of the solar back fed breaker inside the panelboard. Bottom line, homes equipped with lower amperage rated electrical service panels may not be capable of receiving enough solar production to offset electrical usage. In this case, upgrading the electrical service and main electrical panel is a solution.