Do your breakers keep tripping?

We are often called by customers complaining that their breakers keep tripping or that things in the house have just slowly lost power. When we hear this the first thing we do is look at the electrical panel. Just last week, we got this call from a customer in an apartment building that seemed to be built in the 90s. As we took the cover off and things shifted slightly we could hear arcing; not a good sign! Remember this, if your panel is crackling and popping, call an electrician immediately. Luckily, the damage wasn’t too bad in this case and the panel was still usable.

As you can see the in this picture, the bus bar of the old breaker location was corroding do to arcing. The reason arcing is so worrisome is that its self perpetuating. It heats up so it corrodes so it heats up more and so on. In the worst case scenario this could cause a fire but it could also be very expensive to repair. If this is left unchecked the only fix could be a complete panel replacement. This is why we suggest having us come take a look at your panel once every couple years. Its simple, inexpensive and it will give you piece of mind.