How We Fixed Our Panelboard Problem

I recently moved into my first apartment. I’m a college student and had always lived in the dormitories provided by the university, but decided this year to move out with two of my friends. We moved into a small apartment building with just eight apartments inside. It actually used to be an old house, but was converted and split up into separate units. A few months ago my friends and I were watching a college basketball game and suddenly, in the middle of the third quarter, our power went out.

Luckily, one of my roommates knew that we needed to locate the panelboard, but when we found the panelboard we weren’t able to just flip a switch and turn the power back on. Our neighbor, who was an electrician, discovered that our panelboard didn’t have proper ventilation, thus resulting in an overheated panelboard. If the panelboard had been regularly serviced, this probably wouldn’t have happened.

Even though I know very little about electrical systems, I could see that the panelboard in our home was looking a little run down. From talking to other people in the building, I quickly learned that this problem was not the isolated incident. As the electrician confirmed, this was not only an inconvenience, but also a major fire hazard.

panelboards help to ensure that the current carrying parts are protected from damage and that the equipment operates at the highest standards.

I immediately called the landlord and requested that the panelboard should get immediately fixed. Fortunately the landlord knew of a company called East Coast Power Systems, which supplied ‘bulletproof’ panelboards that would last for decades if cared for properly. As a result, our landlord replaced the necessary parts on the panelboard and our power was restored. Since then we have never had a problem, but more importantly we never had to worry about missing a game again.