Fuse Box Upgrades

A lot of older homes in New Jersey have old-style fuse boxes or panels. If you have one of these older style fuse panels, then you know how inconvenient they can be. Picture it: a beautiful Sunday afternoon; all your friends are over, and you are watching your favorite football team. There are just seconds left on the clock and the quarterback throws the ball and in midair, you wait with anticipation and what happens? Your TV screen goes blank.

So what happened? Well, if you have one of those fuse boxes then you know exactly what happened, the fuse blew. So you race to your fuse box and locate the bad fuse, take it out and install a new one. A snap of a few sparks and a quick whiff of ozone, and you are back in business but by now, you missed the very end.

Fact is that fuse boxes, although good at the time are becoming extinct. Most insurance companies won’t provide homeowners insurance with homes that have these outdated fuse boxes. You might be curious to why. If so, then take a minute to read how having a new panel with circuit breakers can benefit you today.

New Electrical Panels – Save the day!

When you compare a fuse box to an electrical panel that has circuit breakers, it just does not compare. Modern circuit breaker panels are built with higher safety standards than outdated fuse panels. Circuit breakers provide more protection than the old screw in fuses. Circuit breakers protect every device in the house with sensitive circuitry that responds quickly if there is a fault, opening the circuit and eliminating the risk of danger and fire.

There is also excellent protection available in the form of Ground-Fault Circuit Breakers and Arc-Fault Circuit Breakers. Fuses cannot give you protection like a GFCI and AFCI breaker.

Older equipment and wiring within your home did not have to support the modern appliances of today’s time. Another common electrical hazard that we see is: overloading or doubling up of circuits in outdated fuse panels and breaker panels. Unfortunately, this leads to fires or burnt up appliances and circuits.
By upgrading the source of power distribution to your home by installing new a new panel with circuit breakers you can eliminate this potentially dangerous situation.

Here are some reasons to upgrade your old fuse panel:

• Reduce the chance of an electrical fire.
• Eliminate doubled-up circuits.
• Eliminate the need to replace fuses, or the chance to install the wrong size of fuse, which is a common fire hazard.
• Capacity to add additional circuits in the future.
• Increase the resale value of your home.
• Be able to get homeowner's insurance.

What should I get?

There are many affordable options on replacing your old fuse box. Leinster Electric will give your home a thorough evaluation and will help you to decide on whether you should have your outdated fuse panel replaced with a modern circuit breaker panel and what size panel you should have for your home.
By upgrading your old, outdated fuse box, it will ensure that you get the most out of your home’s electrical system and help avoid electrical hazards. And save your Sunday football game.

Please contact Leinster Electric at 973-349-4184 or use our online form to a request an appointment to see how our expert residential electricians can help you with fuse box upgrades!