I work in the electrical field and have been running into this conversation more often lately, especially with older homes.
Panels sometimes look serviceable, but once modern loads and safety concerns are considered, the overall service capacity becomes questionable.
I’m curious how others here explain the difference between a panel upgrade and a full electrical service upgrade to homeowners. What are the key indicators you rely on when making that recommendation?
Could it be that you’re in Arizona? We (those likely to respond to you here) are all in Britain (England, Scotland or Wales) and we are primarily concerned with customers of OVO Energy, a British energy supplier, although - as you discovered - everyone is welcome.
I think we would normally refer to what you call a ‘panel’ as a Consumer Unit, CU. The regulatory system for domestic electrical installations over here is probably very different from the AZ one, so I don’t think anyone in these forums will have any sensible advice for you.
This is one British scheme, mandatory for those who rent out dwellings: Periodic Inspection Explained | Electrical Safety First. You can see the sort of thing the authorized electrician will test, and it’s recommended to have an EICR carried out every ten years (for those renting out a property, that’s every five years).
Good luck with your search, and Happy New Year1
+8Welcome
The name’s 186, Blastoise186 and I’m one of the Forum Volunteers who helps to run the show around here. Good to meet ya!
I’m not a Forum Moderator or OVO Staff myself, but I do chat to the Forum Moderators a lot (you wouldn’t believe the silly jokes I send them!). Looks like you’ve got a pretty cool question there and hopefully there’ll be folks who might be up for talking about it as IIRC we do have the odd electrician on the Forum.
Just in case it helps though… You might also want to look at posting on dedicated electrician forums too so that you can get wider coverage as we don’t have a huge number of qualified electricians on here.
If we’re able to get an answer though, we’ll let you know!
+8I'm not sure if using the word panel you also mean consumer unit or whether you are talking about something else entirely.
Slightly off track but if we are talking about consumer units there has been a debate about whether plastic CUs should be replaced by metal ones often with cost estimates in the thousands. It seems that so long as the plastic unit meets the total load rules then it can stay there. The issue under discussion is whether it is safe in an overload condition that could cause it to catch fire. The answer is you can put in a fire suppression module that reacts to excessive heat and sprays out a fire suppressant. The mess can then be sorted out later (as with a metal CU) but a fire has been prevented.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HWr_cRNKQw
Get a second opinion if you are not sure. eFIXX is a good source of information about electrical standards and issues.
Peter
+7Could it be that you’re in Arizona? We (those likely to respond to you here) are all in Britain (England, Scotland or Wales) and we are primarily concerned with customers of OVO Energy, a British energy supplier, although - as you discovered - everyone is welcome.
I think we would normally refer to what you call a ‘panel’ as a Consumer Unit, CU. The regulatory system for domestic electrical installations over here is probably very different from the AZ one, so I don’t think anyone in these forums will have any sensible advice for you.
This is one British scheme, mandatory for those who rent out dwellings: Periodic Inspection Explained | Electrical Safety First. You can see the sort of thing the authorized electrician will test, and it’s recommended to have an EICR carried out every ten years (for those renting out a property, that’s every five years).
Good luck with your search, and Happy New Year1
+4Welcome to the OVO Forum
I can see our Super Users have come by with some advice for you. Let us know if you’ve got any further questions. As
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