Arnie's Electric

04/03/2026

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04/01/2026

04/01/2026

WHAT IS SURGE PROTECTION?

Your home can receive power surges from many sources, both external and internal. These surges can damage appliances and electronics, costing you significant amounts of money.

These surges can come from inside or outside your home. Sources outside of your home can be lightning strikes or your be caused by the utility company. As power demands have been increasing over the years and the utility company’s infrastructure ages, the power quality to many homes is not as good as it used to be and surges can be common.

But it isn’t just external threats that you need to worry about. Power surges can also be caused by appliances inside your home. Some of the appliances that have motors which might be going bad without your knowledge, including refrigerators, air conditioners, heat pumps, washing machines, clothes dryers, vacuum cleaners, etc. When an appliance is the source of a surge, that surge travels through the circuit for that appliance to your main breaker panel and is distributed throughout the house to all the other appliances and electronic devices. These surges don’t always cause obvious damage right away but can cause cumulative damage, shortening the lifespan of your appliances and devices.

A good solution for this is whole house surge protection. An electrician can install a surge protection device in or near your main breaker panel. This device will protect your entire electrical system from external power surges and from many of the internal surges by absorbing the surge. Why many internal surges and not all of them? Because the appliance causing the surge may have other devices on the same circuit so the surge is going to reach those devices before it reaches the surge protection device at the main breaker panel. For this reason, it is also a good idea to install a surge receptacle for expensive electronic devices such as entertainment centers.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

A high-quality whole house surge protection device will cost about $675 to be installed. Fortunately, this is a pretty straight forward installation so there isn’t much that can affect that price. One thing that could affect the price is if you don’t have enough room in your panel. If you have two empty breaker spaces, you’re in good shape! If not, there will be some extra cost to make space in your panel.

If you want layered protection such as surge receptacles, you can plan to spend around $165 to have one installed.

03/31/2026

What happened in Nashville, TN recently was awful. An unusual cold spell shut down the area. Businesses were closed, people and pets suffered... When it comes down to it, we are all responsible for ourselves and our families. We can not always rely on our government, power companies, or anyone else.

So how do we prepare for situations like this? Much of the country is naturally more prepared for a situation like this. In the northern part of the country, our homes are built for cold weather, we already have the proper apparel, and our systems are designed to handle cold weather every year. But other situations can arise. Tornadoes, floods and large storm systems can still interrupt our electrical power supply. Even in the north, where cold weather is normal, not having power in the winter can be disastrous. If something does happen and your town loses power for a day, or days, or weeks, what would you do? Even the best insulated house can become cold quickly without a heat source. Many times, a power loss is localized and you could go to a friend’s house or hotel. But what if it isn’t localized? What if we have a situation like Texas had where there is nowhere to go to get warm? How do you deal with that? And it isn’t just heat that you need to worry about. Many homes have a well pump that supplies water. Electricity is needed to cook food. Electricity can even be required to protect the house itself. If your house has a sump pump to remove unwanted water and you lose power during a heavy rain or flooding, what kind of damage could be done because the sump pump wasn’t running?

Fortunately, there are ways to be prepared for the loss of electricity. The best thing you can do is have a backup generator to supply electricity for your home. When it comes to backup generators, there are two basic styles, the permanent standby generator and the portable generator.

The whole home generator is permanently installed in your yard and connected to the main power supply for your home. With this system, a power loss is detected by an automatic transfer switch which fires up the generator and transfers the source of power from being supplied by the power company to being supplied by your generator. When electricity from your power company is restored, the operation is reversed automatically. The whole process is quick and seamless. These generators are powered by natural gas or propane. The benefit of this type of generator is that it can power your entire house and requires nothing of you.

The portable generator is one that you would wheel out of your shed or garage and plug in to a special outlet to supply power to the essentials in the event of a power outage. This type of generator will not power your entire house but it will power some essentials. The benefit of this type of generator is cost. While a whole home standby generator, including installation, starts at $12,500, we can have your home ready to plug your portable generator (which you can pick up at any home improvement store) for as little as $1,300.

I hope that we have all learned a lesson from Nashville and each one of us will be thinking about what steps we can take to make sure that the safety of our family is not dependent on the government or a power company. If you would like to talk about your options and what might work best for you, please reach out to us!

Arnie,

Arnie's Electric

03/31/2026

Panel Upgrade or REplacement

Upgrading a home’s electrical service to 200 amps is one of the most frequent requests we receive. There are several reasons that a homeowner should consider doing this.

1. The service conductors on the outside of the house are damaged

2. More power is needed

3. More space is needed in your current panel

4. The panel you have is dangerous

5. There has been water intrusion into the panel

6. You are going to sell your home

The Difference Between a Panel Replacement and a Service Upgrade

Different situations require different solutions. Sometimes, just replacing the breaker panel and circuit breakers is in order. But this is not upgrading your service. It is not possible to upgrade from 100 amps to 200 amps simply by replacing your breaker panel. To upgrade to 200 amps from a smaller service, you will need a new breaker panel, circuit breakers, meter socket, service conductors, grounding electrodes and bonding conductors.

Damaged Service Conductors

Many times, the gray cable that comes from the top of the house and enters the meter or the cable that exits the meter and enters the electrical panel can be damaged. This often happens when the electrical service has a lot of exposure to sunlight. The UV rays can cause the outer jacket of the cable to deteriorate and split. Once this happens, rainwater can travel through the inside of the cable into the meter socket and into the panel. This will cause the boxes to rust out from the inside and oxidation to appear on the buss bars. When this happens, entire service needs to be replaced.

More Power is Needed

Sometimes you need more power. You might be getting central air conditioning, a hot tub, a swimming pool, an addition or anything else that requires more power than you are currently consuming. This will require the whole service to be upgraded.

More Space is Needed

If all you need is more space in your panel because you can’t add any circuit breakers, then you might be able to just have the panel replaced without upgrading the entire service – as long as the rest of your service is in good condition.

Your Existing Panel is Dangerous

If you have a Federal Pacific or Zinsco breaker panel, you need a new panel! These circuit breakers are known to not trip during an overcurrent situation and cause fires. As long as the rest of your service is in good shape, you can just have the panel replaced. But don’t wait, do it as soon as possible!

Water Intrusion

Water usually enters your panel in one of two ways. One way is mentioned above – the service cable is damaged and water is running through the inside of the cable into your panel, in which case the entire service will need to be replaced. The second way is when the sealant used to seal the hole in the house that the service cable goes through has been compromised and the water travels on the outside of the cable into your panel. In this case, you could just have the panel replaced.

You’re Selling Your Home

Having a nice, new 200 amp panel seems to be a selling point for homes these days. It seems to be one of those things that buyers are looking for. But really, whether or not you are planning to sell soon, this is definitely a good investment to make.

How Much Does It Cost?

To replace an existing service with a new 200 amp service can cost anywhere from $4,200 to $5,000. To replace an existing panel with a new panel and circuit breakers can run from $1,900 to $2,600.

Why the range? There can be many variables such as logistics of doing the work, length of wire runs, type and number of circuit breakers required, etc. And if you want to get into the new high tech, wi-fi connected smart breakers, the price will be significantly higher.

03/21/2026

My customer is in a 100+ year old barn and had some fuse boxes still on the wall beside 2 fairly new 200 amp SQ “D” QO panels…( wonder why the guys that installed those left the fuse boxes), but ran the old 14-2 and 12-2 wiring into 4x4 j-boxes and then into the breaker panel…

02/20/2026

Here, down along the Susquehanna River, I installed a Generator Interlock Switch, a 50 amp inlet box and 25’ cord for a customer who purchased a Westinghouse 11.5 Kw generator for emergency backup power…

02/20/2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCn0QEByFdw

Informational video on how to properly store your generator or inverter for the long term.Website:https://www.championpowerequipment.comParts Store: https://...

12/21/2025

This post I changed out an old fluorescent 4’ shop light in the laundry room for a 4’ LED light and changed out an old Harbor Breeze ceiling fan and light for a new remote control one in the upstairs landing area…and of course my helper for the day…

11/11/2025

This was a 100 amp to 200 amp service and panel upgrade on East Prospect Rd in York, PA…we had to install new 30 amp dryer plug and wire, new 50 amp range plug and wire along with new breakers of course…a 200 amp SQ “D” HOMeline panel, meter box and 4/0 SEU cable…

11/11/2025

I was called here to finish a range hood install and it had no electrical supply..? I cut a chase in the drywall and voila, ran into a block wall…🤔…so, I knocked an access into the block so I could tap into the receptacle box and then patched everything up with tape and 45 minute spackle and had a good install…😉👍😎