Hanco Electric LLC

08/05/2026

Buying or selling an older King County home in your future? Active knob-and-tube wiring can complicate things at closing. A lot of insurers won't write a policy on it, or will charge a premium, and that can turn into a last-minute scramble mid-transaction. The good news is- it's a known, fixable situation, and knowing before the appraisal beats finding out during it. Hanco Electric handles knob-and-tube replacement regularly and can give you a real assessment.

07/20/2026

⚡ Every time you flip a switch, charge your phone, or plug in an EV, you're relying on something one person spent the better part of a decade trying to figure out, with no guarantee it was even possible.

Before 1820, electricity and magnetism weren't even considered related. Two completely separate subjects, studied by different people, with different tools. Then something happened that nobody in the room could explain, and one man refused to let it go until he did, nine years later.

That refusal is the reason the modern electrical grid exists. We wrote up the real story: what started it, what nearly ended it, and the moment it finally worked. This is the story of Faraday.

Full story in the comments 👇

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07/18/2026

⚡ Here's something we see a lot in older King County homes: panels where "off" doesn't actually mean off.

Look at the photo, that panel has a whole group of breakers doing the job of one main shutoff. Only one of them actually says "MAIN" on it. The others, labeled for the dryer or range, are just as much a part of that main disconnect group, they're just not marked that way.

Here's the part that matters most: even with everything in that group switched off, the wires feeding into the panel can still be live. True shutoff requires the utility to disconnect power at the meter.
We wrote up where this design came from, and why it's not allowed in new work anymore.

Full article in the comments 👇

07/18/2026

⚡ Ever wonder why electricians get nervous seeing "Zinsco" on an old panel?

It's not the age. It's a specific design flaw: the breakers can literally melt and weld themselves into the "on" position, which means they stop doing their one job (tripping when something goes wrong) without any visible warning.

No formal recall was ever issued for these panels either, which is a whole story in itself: insurance companies moved on this faster than any government agency did.

We wrote up the full history: the actual failure mechanism, why insurers act without a recall, and whether every Zinsco panel needs replacing (spoiler: it's not all-or-nothing).

Full article in the comments 👇