What’s important when you call an electrician?
Let’s talk about a particular type of call where people are adding new service or new appliances to a home or housing space.
In these kinds of situations, the context is important, partly because new service requires precise additions that coexist with what’s already there. Electrical service has its own very important protocols and standards that make this work hard to do without a lot of professional experience and resources, not to mention the right tools and training. We’ll talk about some of the common challenges and how the pros work through them.
Room in the Box
Professional electricians will evaluate a breaker box and figure out how to add new service to an existing set of connections. One of the overarching questions is whether there is room in the box, and how to punch out an existing space for new service (of a particular type!)
It’s also important to map these boxes. Experienced professionals know that in many homes, few or none of the existing breakers are marked properly to show what they represent in the home’s electrical wiring structure. So that requires some diagnostic work in order to add the new service.
New Service Designations
Particular devices also require their own voltage and amperage. These are not very easy things to figure out without professional assistance. So this is another part of the electrician’s work, where this expert is really a key consultant in home improvement. In other words, with things like landscaping and painting, people can tell a contractor exactly what they need. With electrical work, and particularly in new service, electricians will often be responsible to explain the situation to the customer!
Origins of New Service Needs
So where does a need for new service come from?
Sometimes wiring needs to be extended for additions to a home or business property. In other cases, it needs to be enhanced for amenities like pools and hot tubs.
In some other cases, a customer is turning one sort of appliance over to another – for example, replacing an antique gas appliance with a modern electric one – which will necessitate more kinds of new electrical service.
This, along with common repair work and installations like security lighting, is part of what a professional electrician does on a routine basis.
We want to be your source for professional electrical work in the Gainesville/St. Augustine area. Take a look at the rest of the blog for more on our expertise and how we serve customers. You can also check out our NFPA codes on the website to learn more about fireproofing and fire safety for properties. All of this is important for developing the right plan for your property – and maintaining your real estate well, instead of just “winging it”.