Old Breaker Panels – Federal Pacific/Zinsco

Federal Pacific and Zinsco Breaker Panels

Here at Electric Doctor/Sparky’s, one of our most common jobs is answering questions about the dangers of having an older breaker panel (electrical service). Generally, we always recommend replacing breaker panels that are more than 20-30 years old.  The most common panels which are mentioned in home and electrical inspections are Federal Pacific Panels (also known as FPE) and Zinsco Panels.

So, how do you know which type of breaker panel is powering your home?

Federal Pacific (FPE) Panels generally have orange breakers but also come in black and brown:

Zinsco Panels are generally multi-colored including blue, red, green and black:

Newer breaker panels are generally labeled better than older services, making it much easier to identify.

Common Breaker Panel Manufacturer’s for Newer & Older Panels:

Cutler Hammer

General Electric (GE)

Siemens (ITE)

Square-D – Homeline

Square-D – QO

Common Breaker Panel Manufacturer’s for Older Panels:

Bulldog (Pushmatic)

Challenger

Federal Pacific (FPE)

Wadsworth

Westinghouse

Zinsco

If you ever have any trouble identifying your breaker panel, feel free to call and ask us. We offer panel maintenance services to help keep your electrical service running at its best for many years. We also offer free estimates on all service replacements, upgrades and repairs.

303.973.2551

Infrared Thermometer Electric Equipment Scanning

Infrared Scanning

Infrared thermometer (contact) electric equipment scanning is a method of detecting possible loose or deteriorating electrical connections and hot spots at points where connections are found or may be deteriorating. These points can include circuit breaker to branch wire terminations, circuit breaker to panel buss connections, main lug terminations, neutral and ground terminal connections in electrical panel boards and load centers to name a few. Infrared scanning performed by trained professionals is an accurate method of assisting in performing maintenance checks to identify potential overloading of circuits and or equipment. Infrared scanning can detect areas where excessive heat may be accumulating at the points of connection or deterioration of buss bars etc. Scanning is widely utilized in commercial and industrial manufacturing facilities where equipment reliability is crucial to the operational goals of the company. This type of scanning along with a sensible preventative electrical maintenance program can more than pay for the expense of the equipment and the trained electricians needed to carry out the ongoing program by saving the costs of otherwise unforeseen repairs and equipment down time.

Infrared thermometer Scanning is becoming increasingly popular in the residential sector and is a recommended service offered by many professional electric contractors. The scan is best utilized in conjunction with a preventative maintenance program and will help to ensure years of reliable electrical equipment operation.

Sparky’s professionally trained staff has extensive experience with both infrared contact style scanners as well as distant motion scanning featured with today’s advanced FLIR technology. FLIR technology was developed for the USA military and has become a useful tool for a variety of energy efficiency evaluations such as the viewing of buildings from a distance to analyze heat loss. The FLIR technology and its many uses will be addressed in more detail in future blogs.

Sparky’s USA/Electric Doctor Inc offers infrared thermometer electrical panel scanning for our residential customers too. This service is economical, performed quickly and does not require any electrical outages.  It is an affordable way to know your electrical system is safe and operating properly. Our electricians have extensive training and experience in performing infrared thermometer electrical equipment scanning. Sparky’s USA personnel will also visually check and manually tighten all of your electrical panel connections to the recommended specifications as part of our inspection service. Upon completion of your equipments preventative maintenance service we will provide you with a written report detailing the results of your infrared thermometer scan and further recommendations (if any). This service has been an exceptional value for our clients, as we have seen numerous examples of the infrared scan service pinpointing a loose connection or deteriorating circuit breaker, enabling Sparky’s USA to make a minor repair prior to it becoming a large headache for the owner. As we said earlier the service is quite affordable, will take a minimal time commitment and will provide peace of mind. Give us a call today or see our services guide for quick straightforward pricing and to arrange an appointment for your infrared thermometer scan and preventative maintenance panel service.

Park Meadows Black Friday Blackout

Emergency Service on a Day Off

The Friday after Thanksgiving is affectionately called Black Friday. It is the busiest shopping day of the entire year, where even the slowest of economies pick up the pace and cater to every shopper’s desire. Many stores open early on Black Friday, as early as Midnight and some just open an hour or two earlier than usual.

Here at Electric Doctor, we were looking forward to a much needed 3 day weekend after a great Thanksgiving. We received a call around 8:45am. This particular Park Meadow’s store had set to open at 8:00am that morning, ready for a rush of shoppers and when they went to turn on the lights and open the doors to swarms of shoppers, they had a Black Friday Blackout.

The store’s mechanical and lighting systems are controlled remotely via an automation system to help lights from being left on and the store being over heated/cooled. There are two manual override buttons for the lighting system which allow several hours of on time before resuming normal operation. When the manger went to override the lighting… nothing… just emergency lights stayed on. We received the call around 8:45am after the on-call mall electrician was unable to determine the problem. Electric Doctor arrived on scene within an hour of the call at about 9:30am and began to diagnose the issue. Craig and Jim determined that the main lighting contactor for the entire store had failed.

The failure of the lighting contactor had then caused several other issues with the automation system. Being a holiday Friday, most electrical supply stores were closed and even those who would open did not have this particular contactor. This situation may have put an end to the store’s largest major shopping day but the docs swung into action. Craig and Jim found a way to bypass the contactor and have it used manually to control the lighting. After resetting the system and even taking the time to show the employees how to use the lighting over the weekend as a temporary solution, the store had the lights on, the blackout over and the doors were ready to open for eager shoppers by 10:30, within 2 hours of being called.

A few days later, the contactor was in and Electric Doctor installed the part during non-business hours and everything was back to normal. While the store did lose 2.5hours of shopping time, they know that it could have been quite a bit longer without the prompt response and creative solution. Prompt response and expert diagnosing helped to save thousands of dollars when they needed it most.

24 Hour Service Available in Denver

303.973.2551

 

Damaged Wire Blowing a Fuse

1 in 20 500MCM Wires

Commercial heating and cooling systems can be extremely complex. Everything about large systems takes extra time from the installation to maintenance and troubleshooting problems.

Craig successfully diagnosed a 1000 ton chiller that was blowing a fuse intermittently. The customer previously had spent a large amount of money including replacing the motor (per another recommendation) at the cost of $50,000 with no success. The fuse continued to blow on occasion leaving the buildings hot and the occupants and customer dissatisfied.

Craig started troubleshooting the parallel wire runs and identified a potential wire issue in 1 of a possible 20 large conductors. Although the testing was fairly consistent, Craig noticed the intermittent issue occurring on one of wires. While the reading on this wire came and went, Craig stayed persistent in his testing where others may have moved on. This one small section of one single wire proved to be the problem to the blowing fuse. What started as a pin-hole size puncture on the wire, turned into an eroded section of wire. The damaged 500 MCM wire was replaced, all at a fraction of the cost of the prior, unsuccessful attempts.

Here is the damaged section that was removed.