It may seem like overkill to prepare for a power outage when you live in the city of Los Angeles, but you probably have had to sit in the dark a time or two during one of those peak usage outages. Wouldn’t it be nice to know you don’t have to worry about even the shortest power outages? This is one of the benefits to having a standby generator installed for your home. Whether you live in the city, the suburbs or in the rural areas around Los Angeles, you can give yourself peace of mind you will never have to do without power. An electrician in Los Angeles is here to explain the benefits to a generator. The team at The Electric Connection can help make it happen.

Standby generators are wired to your home. A switch monitors the electricity flowing into your home and the second the electricity flow is interrupted, it signals the generator to turn on. There is no switching this or that on or pulling a bulky generator out of the shed. It is all done within a matter of seconds and you can carry on without worrying about when the power is going to come back on.

During the installation process, an electrician familiar with Los Angeles electrical codes will need to know what you want to be powered by your generator. You can choose to have the whole home powered or just a few key appliances and lights. The size of your generator will dictate how much you can keep running. Prior to scheduling an install, it would behoove you to do some research or talk with an experienced professional about the various sizes of generators available and what size you need for your home. The team at The Electric Connection can help you with this process. Give us a call today.

How old is your home? Has your electrical system been updated within the last 5 – 10 years? If you haven’t asked these questions recently, it’s probably time to examine your options! Older homes with older electrical systems aren’t typically able to handle the stress of modern electrical appliances. So what can you do to make sure your home can safely run all of your appliances and electronics? Typically, a heavy up can be the answer to your problems. But should you install one? Let the experts at Kolb Electric answer!

A heavy up is an increase in the amperage (power) of your main electrical service. But how can you know if your home is in need of an increase of amperage? There are some things you can check to make sure you’re in need:

Depending on your specific goals, you have a range of upgrades available when thinking about a heavy up. Some service upgrades are as simple as adding a few additional circuit breakers to the existing box, or expanding the box with a subpanel. More complex upgrades may include things like replacing a fuse box or an aging panel with one that allows for higher energy capacity. A Kolb Electrician can evaluate the condition of your current panel with any problems you are experiencing to determine how extensive your upgrades will be.

The time depends on the job. Adding additional breakers to an existing panel is usually pretty quick, often taking less than an hour. Installing a subpanel is not too complicated either, often taking no more than a few hours.

Where it starts to take a long time is when you need to make serious upgrades. If you need to replace a fuse box or circuit main, you could be looking at a job that takes all day.