Home Electrical Guide For New Homeowner’s

Congratulations on buying your first home! However, a new home comes with a lot of responsibility. From plumbing and HVAC to endless odd jobs around the house, you are going to learn a lot of skills you did not expect to learn, especially when it comes to electricity. Electrical issues can seem overwhelming, but our experienced team at Lippolis Electric has created this guide to explain your home electricity system.

Table of Contents

• Home Electrical System Intro
• Who Is Responsible for Your Electrical Service?
• All About Your Electrical Panel
• Regular Care and Maintenance
• Considerations for Your Appliances

A Brief Introduction to Your Home’s Electrical System

Your residential electrical system holds so many components to power your house. Here’s some house wiring 101 to help you understand your home’s electricity basics.

Electricity starts at a generating plant, and the electric company distributes it over wires and through switches and transformers to supply your house with electricity. Electricity flows into your home through a network of wiring from the utility service line. Your home electricity starts at your main panel, also called a breaker box, which sends electricity throughout the house and all the electrical devices that use it. 

Electricity those devices don’t use goes back to the breaker box and into the ground. If the level of electricity starts getting too high, the breaker in the main panel will interrupt the flow of electricity.

We measure electricity in volts or voltage. All electrical devices have a rating for specific voltages. Typical devices and small appliances are rated at 120 volts, while higher voltage appliances such as dryers and heaters have a rating of 240 volts. Electricity flows due to voltage, which is like the pressure that makes electricity flow through wires. The electric company controls the voltage that goes through your home.

The electrical current flows to each electrical source through a circuit of wires, and larger wires carry more current. This electrical current is measured in amps. All electrical devices have ratings for a safe level of amps, just like they do for voltages. 

The circuit breakers located in your home’s breaker box control the electrical flow in separate circuits. Each circuit has a specific amp rating. When you trip the breaker by using too many appliances at once, you increase the power to an amp rating over what the circuit could handle. Larger devices get separate circuits to help minimize the possibility of this.

Transformers transfer energy from one electrical circuit to another through wires. Wires are either hot, neutral or ground. Two wires are hot and not connected to the earth in a transformer, while one wire is ground and connected to the earth. 

Hot wires are black and distribute electricity throughout your home from circuit breakers in a panel. Neutral wires are typically white and return from an outlet to the electrical panel. Ground wires connect to the earth and only take on electricity if too much electricity is flowing. With this, the breaker will trip.

Who Is Responsible for Your Electrical Service?

Most houses receive electrical power from overhead conductors that string from pole to house. These poles have different owners, including phone companies and power utilities. An agreement between power, telephone and cable companies allows multiple lines on a pole to exist.

Because the power utility operates the lines outside your home, they are responsible for maintaining them. The local utility deals with issues up to the service connection point, which typically includes everything up to your meter. This ownership means the electrical utility deals with problems up to the service connection point, such as downed power lines that cause an outage. 

Your utility may provide access to a book of responsibilities to break down what you must cover and what the utility is responsible for. In some cases, electrical issues may stem from a combination of factors, including those the homeowner must address and those the electrical company must handle. In these situations, you can ask an expert contractor to assess the situation and give you an answer. 

All About Your Electrical Panel

The electrical panel is often located in your basement or garage. This central distribution box connects utility service wiring to various uses throughout your home. Here are a few terms you should know about electrical points for a new home:

• Service entrance conductors: The wiring up to and including your meter
• Feeders: Wiring between the main panel and any subpanels in your house
• Branch circuits: Wiring from the panel supplying power to points of use throughout your house, like outlets, switches, lighting or appliances

You have a main circuit breaker on the top of your electrical panel, which protects the branch circuit breakers. When this breaker is in the off position, it will disconnect the house entirely from utility power. This main breaker has a number on its handle, representing the size of the electrical service, usually 100, 150 or 200. 

The branch circuit breakers regulate the branches going out to your devices. A number on the handle shows their amperage rating: 15, 20, 30 and beyond. Single-circuit breakers have a rating of 120 volts, and double-circuit breakers supply 240 volts. 

When these breakers trip, they are fully resettable, unlike fuses. However, you must take care when resetting breakers, as some trip to the midway position rather than off. If your breakers trip to the midway position, you must manually move the handle to the “off” position and back to the “on” position.

Besides resetting a circuit breaker, you should call a licensed electrician for home electrical troubleshooting for other breaker box issues, such as:

• Difficulty resetting a circuit breaker
• Replacing a circuit breaker
• Adding new circuits
• A buzzing, arcing or warm panel

Regular Care and Maintenance for Your Home’s Electrical System

Even if you don’t understand everything about electricity, you should still know basic care and maintenance for your home’s electrical system.

Electrical failure or malfunction causes approximately 46,000 house fires annually, according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Many of these are from the improper wiring of different elements in the home electrical system and continually using faulty outlets. It’s best to avoid do-it-yourself electrical projects. It may seem like an easy job, but when it comes down to it, hiring a licensed professional trained in electrical safety is your best option to avoid catastrophic outcomes.

If you purchased a fixer-upper, make sure to check the wiring! Homes with older wiring or a lower-capacity electrical system may need to have the entire system upgraded. A modern electrical system can prevent overheating and save your home from a fire. Most homes require 100 to 200 amps because of the large number of appliances and electrical devices.

Many homes also experience power surges, often from electrical storms or blown transformers. These power surges, while not uncommon, may cause extensive damage to your home’s electrical wiring. If you experience a power surge, it is crucial to call an electrician and make repairs before the damage spreads throughout your entire home.

Faulty electrical outlets can also cause a fire if you use them. Ways you can spot a faulty outlet include:

• Blackened stains around the electrical outlet’s cover.
• A discolored outlet.
• Sparks emitting from the electrical outlet.
• An outlet where one of the plugs does not work properly.
• An electrical outlet that makes a buzzing or crackling noise.
• A warm outlet.

Ensure you do not use any faulty outlet until after a licensed electrician inspects and repairs it.

Inspecting your home’s electrical system is a great way to catch issues before they cause a serious problem. Keep trees and bushes trimmed and away from the cables and wires outside your home.

Inside your home:

• Check all switches and outlets.
• Test outlets and GFCI outlets with a receptacle tester.
• Test your home’s carbon monoxide and smoke detectors.
• Check electrical cords.
• Check light bulbs to make sure they don’t exceed your lamps’ maximum wattage.

As a new homeowner, you need to understand electrical safety and how to act to keep you, your family and your home safe.

Considerations for Your Appliances

Have you ever noticed the wattage on your microwave? Or see the different instructions on frozen food for cooking in microwaves of different watts? Wattage is simply voltage times amperage.

Watts measures the amount of electricity that electrical devices draw from an electrical circuit. A microwave, for example, may have a rating for a max of 10 amps, and you plug it into a standard 120-volt electrical outlet. Your microwave may then draw as much power as 1,200 watts (10 amps x 120 volts). 

This allows you to understand how much electricity a circuit has and how many appliances you can use at once. A typical 15-amp, 120-volt household circuit has a maximum of 1,800 watts available. This means all the appliances on that circuit can only use 1,800 watts before you overload that circuit.

Trust Your Electrical Repairs to Lippolis Electric

If you’re still confused about electricity in your house after reading our guide to home electricity for beginners, that’s all right! There’s so much to learn about electricity. Professional electricians like the team at Lippolis Electric are there, so you don’t have to learn everything. If you have an electrical issue, contact us today! 

No job is too big or too small for our highly trained and skilled professionals! Let us lend our years of experience to help make your time in your new home as enjoyable and as stress-free as possible. We look forward to hearing from you!