by Matt Baggett

If you are like most people, you probably have no clue what brand your electric panel is at your house. However, when it comes time to sell your house you will want to know. One brand being red-flagged by inspector’s is Federal Pacific.

You can learn more here.

Basically what the experts say is that Federal Pacific’s breakers can malfunction to not interrupt the flow of an overload of electricity when a circuit is overloaded. It can work fine for years but then not work properly after an overload situation creating a fire hazard.

I spoke with two electricians who quoted replacement prices of $600 to $1000 to replace Federal Pacific panel boxes with new panels.

Federal Pacific was a reputable brand from the 1950’s to 1980’s, so there are millions of these panel boxes out there. They are no longer in business so there is no company to issue a re-call on them. This leaves the cost of replacement on the homeowner.

If you are planning on selling your house in the future, check out your electric panel. If you have a Federal Pacific you can prevent a bad home inspection by a prospective buyer by pre-emptively replacing your panel box. You also won’t have to worry about an electrical fire.

For other tips like these to get your house ready to market–give us a call.